KS Bull 2018 | Issue 1 © Raffles Institution

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KS Bull 2018
Issue 1

The views expressed in each essay are purely for the academic purposes of crafting a viable argumentative
response. They do not necessarily reflect the personal opinions of any student or staff member, nor do they
necessarily represent the perspective(s) of Raffles Institution.

No portion
n of
on of tthis
is collection
his
hi co
olllec
ecti
tion may
on ma be reproduced or shared for any reason and by any means whatsoever.

Note: The comments that follow each student response include both markers’ and editors’ comments.

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CONTENTS

2017 Year 6 GP Prelim

1 ‘Business should have no place in politics.’ Do you agree? 4

Caleb Ho | 17S03N

2 Are machines making humans obsolete? 8

Joelle Lim | 17S06N

3 ‘Scientific knowledge cannot be trusted because it is unreliable.’ 13

Is this a fair assessment?
Wang Tian Cheng | 17S03N

4 ‘In an increasingly uncertain world, there is little point in 17

predicting the future.’ Discuss.
Wang Yuxing | 17S03N

5 Paper 2 – Passage 22

6 Paper 2 – AQ Response 25
Zhang Zhi | 17S06E

2017 Year 5 KI Promo

Paper 1 – Section A

7 ‘Looking for foundational beliefs to ground knowledge is futile. 27

It is better to examine if our beliefs cohere with other beliefs.’
Discuss.
Wang Bei Ni | 17S06F

Paper 1 – Section B
8 Critically assess the view that human knowledge is too complex 31
to be analysed – and known scientifically.
Joey Lee | 17S03L

2017 Ye
Year
ear
ar 5 G
GP
P Pr
Prom
Promotional
room
mo Examination

9 “Media regulation is needed now more than ever.” Discuss. 35

Meng Bo Kang | 18S07A

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10 Consider the value of parks and natural spaces in your society. 38

Natalie Quah | 18S06O

11 Paper 2 – Passages

12 Paper 2 – AQ Response 42
Yeo Kee Hwan | 18S03Q

13 Paper 2 – AQ Response 48
Jovan Lim | 18S03O

2018 Year 6 GP Common Test 1

11 ‘City living is becoming undesirable.’ Do you agree? 51

Sng Hong | 18A01C

12 ‘The best way to combat climate change is through education.’ 55

Discuss.
Zacchaeus Chok | 18S03O

13 Discuss the claim that the digital age has made it more challenging 59
for political leaders to govern today.
Seraphine Loh | 18A13A

14 To what extent has technology had a negative impact on the arts, 63

such as music or photography?
Leong Mun Yee Elizabeth | 18S06G

Editorial Team 87

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1
2017 | Y6 | GP Prelim | Paper 1 Caleb Ho | 17S03N

‘Business should have no place in politics.’ Do you agree?

In today’s globalised world, commerce and economic prosperity are largely

prioritised. It is not surprising to see that business has become a much more
integral aspect of modern society, and has thus gained tremendous influence as
a result, with giant international companies like Apple having a larger net worth
than some small states. However, in line with the aim of many businesses to
ruthlessly maximise their profits, we begin to see that many firms have turned
their socio-economic influence towards meddling with politics, inciting great
alarm due to allegations of corruption. Indeed, while I agree that the profit-
maximising agendas of firms should have little role in influencing governmental
policies, I disagree with the sweeping statement that business should have
completely no place in politics, as the regulation and growth of businesses still
remain a key aspect of any governments’ ability to accomplish its foreign and
domestic agendas.

Those who fear corruption and nepotism argue that the profit-maximising
agendas of businesses should never influence politics, as this can lead to
inefficient and exploitative policies that aim to seek self-aggrandisement at the
expense of societal welfare. When businesses enter politics, either via lobbying
groups or by providing support to influential politicians, they can leverage their
socio-economic status to bully governments into implementing policies that
work to their self-interest, either by threatening to not cooperate with
governmental agendas or withdrawing their financial support for political
candidates and offices. For example, many businesses in the developing world
pressurise
urise their governments
gover to lift restrictions on pollution so that they can
persistt in
in their destructive
their d estruc business practices, and enter an agreement with the
government to support their re-election. Thus, this can lead to ineffective
policies that threaten the greater societal welfare. More dangerously, the
continued influence of businesses over governance can give rise to the
commercialisation of politics, where the public-serving ideals of governmental
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organisations and politicians have been utterly corrupted by the promise of

selfish financial gains. In the case of revolving door politics, where there is a
frequent transfer of personnel between positions as regulators and legislators
and the companies being regulated and legislated, the motivation for politicians
to reap personal gain has led to great amounts of corruption and inefficiency. In
Japan, this practice and attitude has in fact become a dangerous norm in the form
of “amakudari”, where the politicians and bureaucrats receive large salaries upon
retirement to the private firms and use their connections with former colleagues
in the bureaucracy to implement policies for the benefit of their employer
companies, such as reduced taxation and skipping inspections. This has been
argued to be a great source of economic inefficiency as resources are overly
allocated for the private gains of these firms, leading to low growth rates and
poor economic reform in Japan, precisely why the dismantling of “amakudari”
has become one of the key tenets of Shinzo Abe’s progressive reforms. Hence,
it can be argued that business should have no place in politics, as when businesses
have a substantial influence over governance, it can lead to the compromise of
societal welfare for their own corrupt ends.

However, while the corrupting tendencies of private enterprises in manipulating

politics is highly undesirable, business still has a place in politics, as it is
inseparable from effective governance.

In order to seek the key agenda of economic progress that is so highly regarded
in our increasingly pragmatic world, governments have an incentive to work
hand in hand with private enterprises. Economic achievements in the form of
greater Gross Domestic Product growth, rising wages and increased
employment are an essential expectation of governments by the populace that
votes them into power, as financial and material gains are the most tangible way
to improve the masses’ standard of living. Thus, to accomplish this objective, it
is crucial for governments to work closely with the very enterprises that
generate this wealth. It is the businesses that employ people and provide them
with incomes, and it is the economic activity generated by the businesses that
enablee people
people to
to pay
pay their taxes and allow the continued operation of the
government
nmentt and
d iits
and ability to implement policies. Therefore, it is in the interests
ts ab
of governments to influence the continued growth and prosperity of businesses
by means of implementing policies that can encourage this growth. For example,
the expansion of the rare earths industry in China into a global monopoly has

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been largely due to the key role of the government in backing the rare earth
extraction and refinement firms and pushing for overseas acquisitions. Thus, the
policies of the government have very much to do with stimulating economic
progress, given that economic prosperity is increasingly perceived by the
populace as an indicator of good governance. Thus, there is an interconnection
between politics and businesses, in the form of how public authorities can
operate with private sector to ensure economic growth. Therefore, business is
an integral aspect of politics, and I disagree that businesses should have no place
in politics.

Additionally, it is in the interests of governments to regulate selfish business

practices such that they do not compromise the greater societal welfare.
Without governmental regulation in the free market, business can often employ
predatory business practices that undermine the survival of other business and
exploit consumers, such as in the form of price wars to gain market dominance,
or artificially inflate prices to gain more profits. Often, these business practices
are in direct conflict with governmental aims of socio-economic stability,
economic progress, and societal welfare in the form of employment and material
living standards. More often than not, we have seen how giant corporations have
been able to push small “mom and pop” business out of the economic markets,
and undermine the incomes and livelihood of the people who are unable to
directly compete with these financial powerhouses. Thus, governance that aims
to maximise societal welfare and ensure the livelihood of its people will tend to
implement policies that can regulate these unhealthy business practices. Often,
we see the rise of anti-trust laws that seek to undermine exploitative monopolies,
the taxation of firms that earn too much profits in order to more fairly
redistribute these profits via governmental welfare programmes, and even the
nationalisation of inefficient companies as often seen in China. Therefore,
governments frequently intervene with business practices in order to enhance
societal welfare by enforcing a code of moral business practices via law and
legislation, such that the goals of business do not conflict with the goals of
governance. Hence, business and its regulation still have a significant place in
politics.
s.

Additionally, businesses have become an integral aspect of foreign policy, as the

economic rewards of international relations are now largely intertwined with
businesses. Indeed, in an age of soft power on the stage of international politics,

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the use of businesses as a bargaining tool that confers economic opportunities

and progress is much more prevalent. As a gesture of seeking close relations,
policies that benefit businesses such as bilateral free-trade agreements and the
implementation of common markets, such as the Eurozone, are now part and
parcel of any governmental foreign policy. Many international negotiations are
now leveraging on business investments and allowing the entry of domestic
businesses into foreign markets, as businesses and the economic advantages they
generate are highly prized as a reward for compromise and agreement. For
example, China aims to accomplish its imperialistic ambitions by means of
extensive business projects such as “One Belt, One Road” that aims to
rejuvenate business along the traditional Silk Road. Through its outsourcing of
jobs to Africa via firms and investments in local businesses there, China has also
managed to gain the favour of African states, which now only recognise China’s
legitimacy and dismiss the sovereignty of Taiwan, which is part of China’s foreign
policy agenda. Hence, businesses have a key role in politics, especially in the
realm of international politics and foreign relations, and thus I disagree with the
statement that business should have no place in politics.

Therefore, I agree that businesses should have little influence over politics, but
they still have a large place in politics as it is intertwined with governance and
international relations. Thus, I disagree with the statement1.

Comments:

Relevant, coherent and well supported with apt examples. Ideas are evaluated and well
developed. Scope could be wider and address the characteristics of capitalism vs
societal welfare/governance. An easy and coherent read with effective balance.

Excellent command and control and clarity. Personal voice is evident. Linking devices
are effectively used. Some minor grammatical errors. Effective introduction and
paragraphing. The conclusion, however, could certainly be better developed.

1
Editor’s note: A contradiction emerges here since you assert that businesses should have
both “little influence” and “a large place” in politics! Also, the essay’s final sentence results
in a rather abrupt ending.
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2
2017 | Y6 | GP Prelim | Paper 1 Joelle Lim Xue Qi | 17S06N

Are machines making humans obsolete?

News of the machine AlphaGo, a deep neural network, reverberated across the
world as the program knocked the deep-seated chess champion off his crown
seat. Today, we welcome machines which are faster, efficient and even smarter
than humans seem to be. This raises the question of whether new artificial
creations are making humans irrelevant or perhaps even useless today. Avid
supporters of this new wave of technology believe that machines are far superior
to humans and would easily render humans obsolete in the modern world.
Pessimists too, brood over the unseating of humans from workplaces and society
against the backdrop of the influx of machines. Nevertheless, we would be
mistaken to presume that the rise of machines would completely displace
humans in society. In some ways, it is undeniable that machines may outdo
humans, but in others, there are still essential traits of humans that machines
lack. These traits unique to humanity make us indispensable to the functioning
of society, and hence, I would argue that machines do not make humans
obsolete.

Besides AlphaGo, more artificial intelligence programs on the rise have also been
rapidly redefining what machines are thought to be capable of. Machine learning
techniques are equipping new robots with the skills to learn from past
experiences and acquire decision-making skills. These new developments in
artificial intelligence (AI) are allowing machines to pick up “critical thinking” skills
that were once thought to be only possessed by humans. In some cases, the way
these machines think may even be more desirable - computer scientists claim
that machines are able to make more rational choices and more logical decisions,
decisions
on ns tthat
hat aare
re bbased
as on hard evidence, in their databases. This is easily
conceivable,
ivvable, as
as when
when compared to humans, machines are capable of storing
much more memory of past data and are able to draw on these huge swathes of
data to give much more accurate predictions that humans. These machines are
hence less susceptible to careless mistakes and blunders that humans may be

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more prone to committing. Take for instance the new AI medical programs that
are advancing the medical health scene today. Collaboration between IBM and
the University of Ontario’s Institute of Technology has developed new machines
that can detect nosocomial infections in premature babies such that preventive
measures can be exacted in the early stages. By meticulously analysing heart rate
trends, organ abnormalities and the slightest movements in foetuses, the Project
Artemis machine can detect nosocomial infections in premature babies up to 24
hours ahead of the appearance of symptoms before the symptoms appear. And
it is precisely this ability to objectively handle vast amounts of numerical work
with precision that makes such feats possible in machines; in contrast, such hard
and dry processing work is simply not humans’ forte. While Project Artemis can
be said to be the pioneer of AI for neonatology, it is definitely not the lone
example of machines in the healthcare industry. Machines are already
revolutionising the way we detect illnesses: SG Fullerton Healthcare adopts
computer models to predict chronic diseases in companies and chart out
appropriate primary care measures; the Human Genome Project presents DNA
sequencers to recognise anomalous genetic manifestations and provide insights
for new cancer treatment approaches. The ability to surmise conclusions from
huge data which requires much processing power and memory storage is simply
an advantage machines have that makes humans less useful today. Hence,
supporters of technology believe that machines are superior to humans and are
taking over their place in society today.

Furthermore, others assert that machines are much more efficient than humans
in other ways, in addition to their processing power. The simple fact is that
machines are able to move faster, work without sleep and conduct menial jobs
much more efficiently. This makes machines more productive and cost-effective
than humans due to our physical limitations. Throw in the extra perk of not
having to deal with demands for wage increase, appease labour unions and fret
for paying health benefits - machines seem to be far more attractive than humans
in the workplace. Already, the displacement of humans from factories seem to
be a reality today. Apple supplier Foxconn recently dismissed over 60 000
workers
errs from
from a manufacturing
manu plant in China by replacing them with robots.
Over in tthe United
he U nitted States,
St bright orange Kiva robots are replacing workers in
Amazon’s warehouses - these robots can recognise parcels, arrange them on
shelves and deliver them to their desired destinations. These new mechanical
employees zoom across the warehouses and easily reduce hours of walking time

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in delivery jobs to mere minutes and seconds now. The centre today churns out
up to 50% more package orders than their human predecessors in the same
time. Robots increasingly seem to be better alternatives than hiring blue-collar
workers, especially in terms of quantitative productivity. Hence, it seems that a
future where robots displace humans may not be far-fetched afterall.

Indeed, the barrage of technology today seems to be promising far superior

features and functionalities in machines that humans are incapable of
demonstrating due to our natural limits. Humans’ role in society seems to be
much diminished today and in the likely future too, ardent fans of technology
claim. Nevertheless, I believe that humans also do possess traits that are lacking
in machines, that ultimately make humans invaluable to the greater community.

Firstly, I contend that humans are unique in being able to demonstrate

compassion and empathy, both of which are very much needed in society. The
healthcare industry will not have a future with just robots and no humans - there
is still a need for ‘care’ in healthcare. Machines may indeed boast of superior
prowess in detecting diseases, but an essential feature of healthcare is still the
delivery of treatments. There is a human factor involved in medical treatments
that is not to be overlooked. Besides diagnosing illnesses and prescribing
medicines, there is an element of care that goes into therapy. Patients need more
than accurate diagnoses and cold, detached machines to recover - and it is
humans working in the healthcare sector who are able to devote this care and
concern that machines are not able to proffer. Many times, a conversation can
be more powerful than technology. Clinical trials have repeatedly shown that
people who opt for the more basic at-home palliative care usually experience a
much happier end of life journey than those who undergo invasive surgical
treatments or opt for life-sustaining machines that are offered by advanced
technologies in hospitals today. Going without the extraordinary treatments, in
some cases, also allows these patients to outlive their counterparts. This goes
to show that there is much more to healthcare in today’s world than simple
medical prognosis and appropriate treatments. Machines may hold the future for
makingg m more
ore aaccurate
ccurate predictions and more accurate drug prescriptions, but
the widely
delly neglected
neeglleccted fact
f is that humans are also needed to nurse patients to
better health. There is much more to a doctor-patient relationship than what
machines can replicate. Humans are needed for our ability to show care. Besides,
the health industry is not the only sector that requires human care: the food and

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beverage and service industries all require that human-to-human interaction and
connection that machines are unable to provide. Humans’ ability to empathise,
express emotions and forge meaningful relationships with customers is an
essential factor that makes us relevant and something machines cannot replace.

Furthermore, humans have the ability to imagine and create, unlike machines. It
is a fact that even artificial intelligence programs have to be written and designed
by humans to do exactly the task it is supposed to accomplish. In many cases,
machines are still unable to stray from their dependence on instructions or
guidelines set by humans, and are incapable of moving beyond them to generate
out-of-the-box ideas. On the other hand, humans are dynamic and adaptable to
situations; we possess innate creativity and imagination, qualities that are much
needed in society for greater societal progress. Consider the nascent AI-
powered journalism today - with natural language generation machines being
developed for their potential in creating content for newspaper companies like
the Post, the role of journalists and editors is increasingly also being threatened.
Is it really the case that journalists are no longer needed? It may be true that
machines may be capable of producing articles simply by stringing content and
information together into sentences, but it is clear that a good piece of writing
goes beyond mere statements of facts. The importance of ideas and the injection
of human creativity into writing is what makes an article more than just a sum
of its words. Machines are restricted to generating pieces of the same language
style and diction which will ultimately bore readers. Take for instance sports
coverage of matches where the intensity of matches and engaging narratives can
only be produced by humans. To inform and educate, or to even make any
change, emotional connection and creativity are a must, making humans far from
obsolete in society today.

Moreover, machines are also unable to make moral decisions. Machines work
with mathematical formulas and equations to maximise calculated payoffs in
tangible and economic terms. However, ethical rights and morals are also crucial
in all decision making
ecission m aking - some things simply cannot be easily assigned a weight for
machinesnes tto
o ““optimise”.
opptimis Being incapable of evaluating such decisions, it is
inevitable that humans are required to step in to resolve ethical conflicts. In
unmanned vehicles, many AI programs face challenging moral dilemmas
especially when human lives come into play on the road. This is where humans

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are not obsolete and are required to aid machines in navigating ethical
boundaries.

Overall, machines may be better than in humans in some practical functionalities

but humans possess traits that make them crucial in society and far less obsolete
that it may seem.

Comments:

The conclusion is rushed! However, this was very well argued. Your points show clear
knowledge and awareness of issues. There was a good range of ideas and they were
clearly development.

One area of improvement: some of your topic sentences could more clearly address the
idea of obsolescence; after all this is one of the question’s key terms.

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3
2017 | Y6 | GP Prelim Paper 1 Wang Tian Cheng | 17S03N

“Scientific knowledge cannot be trusted because it is unreliable.”

Is this a fair statement?

The reliability of scientific knowledge has been called into question by a

surprising number of modern communities. In light of numerous frauds and
scandals, groups such as the so called “flat earthers” and “creationists”, with the
unreliability of scientific knowledge as their ideological core, have expressed
outright rejection of fundamental truths known to the scientific community for
generations, which in these cases are the facts that the earth is round and that
animals descended with modification from prehistoric ancestors. Even in
countries such as Germany, a reputed hub of technology and research, studies
have shown that up to 18% of young Germans believe in creationism despite
evidence to the contrary. How justified is the seemingly common public
sentiment that scientific knowledge, the information gathered by scientists
through theorising and experimentation, is truly unreliable, meaning it cannot be
depended upon to reflect truth? While scientific knowledge does have many
flaws given imperfections in the field, we should not lose trust in scientific
knowledge as it is by and large reliable.

Some may argue that many bodies of scientific knowledge have yet to be
consolidated and thus see dominant schools of thought as being poorly
substantiated by hard evidence, or even worse, as merely “theories” based solely
on, in the words of some, the “hunches of scientists”. This misrepresents the
scientific method of data collection and analysis, where schools of thought or
even those “theories” have to be supported by evidence before being supported
by the scientific community.

That aside,
side, tthere
here aare
re iindeed
n situations where the scientific community can hardly
seem to decide on what they agree on as fact based on a fixed set of observations.
Notably, in the span of five decades at the turn of the 20th century, less than the
blink of an eye in terms of progress in the field of Physics, Physics has undergone

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a transition from Classical Physics to Quantum Physics, which is even now

undergoing revision and modifications to better explain phenomena. It is perhaps
unsurprising that people have increasingly lost trust in the verity of scientific facts
of the day, given that those “facts” may be replaced by new ones in the
foreseeable future. Scientists, as individuals, are fallible, and thus so is the
knowledge they have gathered. This seems to be the mindset of many of those
who rejected the truthfulness of science.

Moreover, many cases of scientific fraud over the years have tarnished the
reputation of scientific knowledge as being a body of reliable facts, causing some
to lose faith in scientific knowledge. The fraudulent study by Andrew Wakefield
linking vaccines to autism was revealed 10 years after its publication, with the
author having admitted to severely misrepresenting the results of his study. This
raised a public outcry, with popular sentiment questioning how many cases of
scientific fraud had gone unnoticed over the years and are already accepted as
fact. Due to the pressure to produce results and succeed in the field, scientists
are sometimes motivated by fame or funding to publish only the results most
favourable to them. A meta-analysis of biology research papers published by the
Cambridge University Press acknowledged that a staggering 40% of research
conducted by academic labs cannot be replicated in industrial labs. While the
reasons for it are many, it seems to cast reasonable doubt on how honestly and
objectively scientists conduct their studies, with direct implications on the
reliability of scientific knowledge.

However, a distinction needs to be made between what is viewed as accepted

knowledge and an individual’s reporting of observations. Indeed, many studies
may fail to be replicated, be it due to instruments or outright dishonesty, but
results only translate into accepted knowledge once they have been thoroughly
verified by other scientists. The scientific knowledge recognised by the scientific
community today has been tried and tested for the express purpose of ensuring
reliability. The infamous study linking vaccines to autism, might have been widely
publicised and hence construed by the public as factual evidence, but it was
nonetheless
heeless subject
subject to
to criticism from other scientists, whose efforts culminated
in an inquiry
nquiiry tthat debunked
hat d ebu the study. Due to an understanding of human error
and dishonesty at times, rigorous checks and balances are in place to ensure that
information only becomes fundamental truth if it is reported by multiple
scientists. The Singapore National Institute for Chemistry, for example, insists

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that studies carried out in its labs that make use of past research replicate parts
of said past research as well, to ensure their verity and reliability. With such
extensive systems in place, it is only isolated cases that slip through the cracks
and tarnish the image of scientific knowledge.

Next, given our imperfect understanding of various fields, the constant debating
of observations and theories might be the best way to ensure greater reliability
despite an outward appearance of confusion and subjectivity. The constant
review of currently accepted theories expose their flaws and give rise to new
ideas that explain these flaws, after which evidence is again used to support or
reject them. In this constant process of improvement, we allow ourselves to
progress closer to the truth. In the field of computer science, machine learning
was viewed for decades as the most efficient means for computers to improve,
yet when it was theoretically proven otherwise, further investigation was
undertaken that formed the basis of modern, improved “deep learning” that
revolutionised the field, giving rise to modern developments such as genetic
algorithms. Thus while information and knowledge of the past could be viewed
as unreliable, (for example, what was viewed as the best in the past could be far
from the best in the present like in the case of computer science), this should
not diminish our trust in scientific knowledge as we have to recognise innate
constraints faced by various scientific fields in their ability to represent truth at
any one time and acknowledge that many fields are still in development and
progress.

Lastly, given the importance of corporations in funding modern research, one

many be wary of vested interests distorting the verity of scientific claims.
However, the majority of such claims with potential vested interests might yet
turn out to be true since despite the power of corporations in projecting their
self- interests, research institutions are wary of tarnishing their reputations for
short-term funding. This can be exemplified by studies in university labs
sponsored by Tesla Motors, an electric car company, to improve and report on
the efficiency of their core technology, the lithium ion battery. The results,
showingng that
that the
the battery
batte performance of Tesla Motors far outperformed that of
its competitors
mpettitorrs was
was uunderstandably met with doubt by many, but yet after the
product release, such claims were verified by consumers to be true. This could
be due to the need for university labs to preserve credibility. Hence it is
reasonable to put faith in reliable scientific institutions to report factual and

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undistorted knowledge, even if they are backed by corporations with financial

incentives indicating otherwise.

In summary, even with the significant checks and balances in place by the global
scientific community to ensure truth and reliability, there are bound to be cases
that avoid detection, some of them high profile ones that cast doubt upon the
reliability of scientific knowledge. However, this should not negate efforts made
to ensure that scientific knowledge produced is by and large accurate and reliable.
Ideas and theories in development should not be cast aside for being in
development, but continuously improved to get closer to the truth.

Comments:

Content: Relevant, coherent and well-supported. An easy and smooth read. All the core
issues and tensions are addressed. Balance is relevant but could be more coherent.

Language: Help the reader understand your arguments/essay. Good command and
clarity. Good use of complete sentences. Adequate introduction; conclusion could be
improved. Clear paragraphing and coherence. Consistency is key. Personal voice is
evident.

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4
2017 | Y6 | GP Prelim | Paper 1 Wang Yuxing| 17S03N

“In an increasingly uncertain world,

there is little point in predicting the future.’ Discuss.

Following the shock results of the US presidential election and the Brexit vote,
many analysts have come to point out that in the increasingly volatile world we
live in today, none of the theoretical predictions made by experts were played
out in actuality. They attribute this to the unprecedented volatility in our
world, faced with a surge of major issues ranging from the political to the
economic, environment and even social realms. While it may be true that we
are indeed living in a world forced to grapple with such uncertainty today, I
believe that there is still merit in predicting the future, no matter how hard it
may seem.

Pessimists might argue that in our globalised world today, it would be pointless
to predict future trends as there are simply too many permutations and
possibilities to pinpoint the precise outcome in the future. As our world
becomes increasingly globalised and interconnected, our borders, both virtual
and geological, have become more porous and volatile. These people point to
the fact that there is hardly any way we could have foreseen the collapse of the
global economy and trade during The Great Depression, where the sheer
extent of interconnectedness of the global economy precipitated the recession.
This was only allowed by the massive capital and financial flows that is
characteristic of our increasingly globalised and interconnected world today,
where a country’s currency and economy is so dependent on that of others
that an event within a single country like the USA is able to cause so many
economies to go into recession. This was also later repeated in the Asian
Financial Crisis,
iaal C which
ch caused the entire collapse of the Thai Baht. Proponents
rississ, whic
of this claim
claim aargue
rgue tthat
hat this could hardly have been predicted by anyone, as the
interconnectedness of the world’s economies today only means that unless
one has access to the knowledge of each and every move of every country’s
economy, one would be unable to predict when and where the next global

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economic crisis will precipitate from. Accurate prediction is made even more
challenging in that today, more and more countries are adopting freer trade,
and opening up their economies, thus increasing the number of permutations
that must be taken into account, rendering prediction of any future trends
useless.

Furthermore, proponents of the view that prediction is of little use in today’s

world point to the rise of belligerent nations, and claim that even if one can
predict the future, there will always be shock events or actions that goes
against the grain, and invalidate any prediction done previously. This increasing
prevalence of shock events can be alluded to two main sources, that of the rise
of increasingly belligerent nations, and the evolving nature of terrorism. Be it
international aggression, or lone wolf attacks, none of these are what one
would deem the norm. Predictions are always based on past events, by
studying trends and relationships, but instead, shock events like the Russian
Annexation of Crimea or the recent spate of terrorist attacks by self-
radicalised individuals tend to occur at random. While predictions are usually
based on the assumption that all acting players are rational and consistent, one
can see that there has been an increasing tendency for this assumption to be
broken. It can hardly be correct to claim that individuals, or even whole
countries are likely to follow what is the ‘norm’ and to act in a consistent,
rational manner. Therefore, opponents of trend prediction argue that it is
unlikely that we are able to make accurate predictions of human nature, as
both the lone wolf attacks and the aggression by belligerent nations can be
attributed back to individuals- their lack of rationality and consistency. As
evident from the recent spate of schizophrenic foreign policies of USA today
under the leadership of Donald Trump, rationality and consistency can no
longer be taken for granted. This therefore invalidates the very assumption
that predictions must be based on - that of rationality and consistency.

Lastly, these people also deny the usefulness of predictions because current
issues are becoming increasingly difficult to control and may even cause
pessimism
miism and
and iinaction.
naction Proponents of this view argue that even if we were to
make accurate predictions,
accuratte prredict the nature of the issues we face today simply makes
it out of our control and render any efforts futile2. They point to the inaction

2
Phrasing here is awkward and also needs more clarity - it is not clear what efforts you are
referring to.
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of countries on the issue of climate change, an issue with repercussions only

felt in the future. Analysts time and again have claimed the devastating effects
of global warming, and predicted that if we were to continue with our current
trajectory of global emissions, it is likely that global temperatures will rise by
4.5ºC. These predictions claim that there is no feasible way (as of now) that
we can halt or change the planet’s fate, which for many people, seems to be an
inevitable problem that is impossible to solve. This has thus led to the relative
inaction of countries, and the pessimism of the prediction is what has
hampered global leadership (notably the USA) and the collective actions of the
international economy to cooperate and resolve this together. Global warming
has also resulted in the increase in instances of natural disasters, adding to the
volatility and pessimism we see about resolving these issues today.

However, I believe the view that predicting the future is utterly useless is
overly pessimistic, as the fact that governments can learn from these lessons
and improve our social and financial systems seem to prove that there is still
merit in predicting the future. This can be observed from the actions of the
Singapore government, which is known to learn from other countries’ mistakes
and use it to predict and make improvements on their own systems and take
precautions. This is evident in the case of the SGD, which is fixed on a
weighted basket of many other currencies, instead of being pegged on a single
one 3. Furthermore, as Singapore’s forward-looking government predicts that in
the globalised world we live in today, there are bound to be a lot of financial
instability, Singapore has taken extra measures and precautions to diversify our
economy, and not be overly dependent on any single economy. This trend of
predicting that our future is going to be increasingly volatile has led us to set in
place many extra precautions, such that we are able to brace ourselves for the
future. Thus, we learn from observing patterns and taking actions to ensure
that our future is secure and our systems functioning.

Furthermore, although there has been a recent rise in the irrationality of global
players, like belligerent nations and terrorists, we have also seen an increase in
the consensus
nsensus tthat,
hat, aafter
ft studying these trends, the global community has
stepped
edd up its
itts efforts
effforts tto cooperate and stand together to face these shock

3
Include more details in this example as well as the next few examples to show convincingly
that predicting the future was key to averting negative impact. There is room for you to
better anchor your examples in your paragraph’s key ideas.
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events. Internationally, there have been efforts to predict and push back against
the rise of ISIS, whether through increased surveillance and checks at national
boundaries, where communities of every country band together to observe
and monitor the behavior of suspected individuals. Regional efforts from
ASEAN countries to address the rise of belligerence in our region have also
risen, such that we can form an effective bloc to prevent and anticipate China’s
increasingly hostile actions regarding the South China Sea conflict. In the same
vein, the EU has also slapped sanctions on Russia for their annexation of
Crimea and have worked to foster greater cooperation and stability by
pressuring individual countries from overt aggression that threaten political and
global stability, thus working in a global effort to predict trends and identify and
guard against these actions that disrupt global stability.

Lastly, the argument that our predictions cause us to be overly pessimistic as

we realise the inconsequentiality of our actions does not seem to hold water.
This is because although there are indeed some events such as natural
disasters, where the eventual calamity of global warming is beyond our control,
there still remains room for us to mitigate the impacts these events have. Take
the example of earthquakes today. Although the frequency and magnitude of
earthquakes have by no means become less significant, we now see much
fewer casualties and injuries than we did a decade before. This is due to the
fact that our improved technology and detection systems and infrastructure
have allowed us to use devices like satellite imaging to detect large incoming
natural disasters and predict when and where they will hit next. While these by
no means can stop the natural disasters from happening, they serve well to
allow us to mitigate the effects and reduce the casualties. The fact that the
control and containment of diseases like MERS and Zika have been allowed, is
also based on our ability to track and predict where the next infection will be
at, and together, these steps of prediction and tracking of natural calamities can
mitigate the negative implications they bring. Therefore, while there are indeed
valid grounds for people to believe that there is little point in predicting the
future given the unprecedented nature of our world issues today, I believe that
there iss still
still merit
merit in
in doing
d so. Predicting the future allows us to play, even if a
small rol
role,
le in
in mitigating
mitiigating the negative implications that come with the problems.
I believe that with global collaboration and pre-emptive measures in place,
predictions actually serve an even more vital and essential role given our
globalised world today.

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Comments:

You have clearly attempted successfully to fully address the question with a
comprehensive treatment of core ideas and supported them with relevant convincing
examples. Do work on consistency as the relevance of ideas and examples vary in
quality near the end of your essays. Overall, a very smooth read.

Good command of the language and personal voice is evident. Successful attempts at
complex sentences. Effective introductory paragraph, conclusion, paragraphing and
paragraph cohesion.

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5
2017 | Y6 | GP Prelim | Paper 2 | AQ Passage

Janice Turner examines the challenges adult children face in caring for their elderly parents.

In Tate Britain is a painting by the Victorian artist George Elgar Hicks of a woman ministering tenderly
to her invalid father titled Comfort of Old Age. The work is the final panel of Hicks’s triptych Woman’s
Mission. The first panel, Guide of Childhood, in which the same figure teaches her little boy to walk,
has been lost. But the second panel also hangs at the Tate in London: Companion of Manhood shows
our heroine consoling her husband after ghastly news. In all three panels, Hicks depicted “woman” in
her three guises – mother, wife, daughter – and in her ideal state: the selfless provider of guidance,
solace and care.

I have spent a long time in the first two panels of the triptych*: a partner/wife for 30 years, a mother
for 21. (My two sons are grown and pretty much gone.) And I have seen, in the course of my adult
life, enormous progress in those two domains. Now I have reached the third panel, the trickiest bit of
the triptych. My 93-year-old mother is 200 miles away in Doncaster, and since my father died, five
years ago, she has been living alone. She is – I must stress – admirable, independent, uncomplaining
and tough. A stoic. Someone who doesn’t mourn her lost faculties but relishes what she can still do.
However, almost everyone she ever knew is dead, and I am her only child: her principal Comfort of
Old Age.

After finally having wrestled her into (almost) daily care, I returned to London to find a letter of
indictment. As a Times columnist, I have faced my fair share of barbs. But this letter, I must say,
particularly stung. It was from a man who lives in Cheshire (he had supplied his name and address),
and he wanted me to know what a terrible person I am. “I have been puzzled when reading your
column over the past months how you have been able to leave your mother – whose serious health
issues you have used as copy… to holiday in Mexico, East Anglia and Norway.” I was “selfish and self-
regarding”, and I should be ashamed.

I was once again reminded when my children were young and I was a magazine editor. The
judgement shown through the pursed lips from older relatives and the subsequent guilttripping. At
best, my kindest kin manifested a befuddlement: why bother having kids if you work full-time? So let
me warn you that just when you’re free from being judged as a mother, you’ll be judged as a
daughter. It is the last chance for reactionary types who resent women’s career success, or just their
freedom to live how they choose, to have a dig. Look at this selfish woman, weekending in East Anglia
he should be a Comf
when she Comfort of Old Age.

th
The truthh is
is I don’t
do
onn’tt want
wan
antt to
t be
b a full-time carer, any more than I wanted to be a full-time mother. And
I don’t want to live with my ma any more than she wants to live with me. Now that I’ve served out
my parenting years, I want to do other things with my life besides looking after people. Why can’t I

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follow the rest of northern European society which has evolved an individualism that often
transcends notions of family and duty?

Members of the baby-boomer generation recoil at living with their parents. We spent our teenage
years trying to escape. What if your upbringing featured divorce, personality clashes, arguments,
abuse? What if, like me, you left your working-class culture for a completely different life – what if
you have little in common? Or your widowed father now expects you to run around after him like a
skivvy, just as he did your mum? You can reject your roots for your entire adulthood, then your
parents’ frailty yanks you home. It tears up my heart. Yet it is complicated. What if you live far from
your home town: should you be expected to return? My unmarried aunt came back after an
interesting single life to live with my grandmother until her death. Her siblings didn’t thank her for
this sacrifice. Indeed, without the status of marriage, she was treated with disdain.

Largely, our elderly also do not want to be infantilised by their children, or bossed around by their
daughters-in-law. (The claim that Indian parents are “revered” is undermined by rampant elder
abuse.) My ma wants to watch TV and eat her favourite food, not feel she is in the way. “I like to
please myself,” is her refrain. Her home of almost 50 years is her shell: her central fear is of being too
ill to stay. Despite the much-discussed return of “multigenerational living”, the most popular British
solution is the “granny annex”, where an old person maintains autonomy behind her own front door.
We must also remember that they are the ones who will be moving. And, this can be difficult
emotionally. They will be watching as their belongings are readied for donation. They are the ones
leaving their homes for communal living arrangements in unfamiliar cities. Surely, it’s not as simple as
just “come live with me then?”

Yet politicians of left and right wing are always telling us that the solution to our screwed-up social-
care system is the family for different reasons. Left-wing leaders dislike the “care industry” because
caring for others cannot be totted up according to a calculus of cost and returns. Right-wing
politicians, on the other hand, worry that we will not care for our parents as unquestioningly as we
do our children. In practice, these all amount to the same thing: women, chiefly daughters and
daughters-in-law, toiling away unpaid.

Compared to looking after my ma, tending to children seems simpler and more exuberant, although
the parallels are striking. From stair gates to stairlifts; from pushchairs to wheelchairs; the
incontinence provision; the helplessness. But raising children is largely a cheerful, upward trajectory.
Elderly care is an uneven descent towards some hidden, grim crevasse. There is no boasting, no
showing cute snaps on your phone. You learn not to mention geriatric travails. People either look
uncomfortable or bored.

And like our parents, it will be our turn soon. Worse, we are living longer, often fading out in
medically preserved decrepitude over many years. I can’t understand why both as individuals and as
a societyy we
we rrefuse
effu
efus
usse to p laan.
n Well, actually I can. It’s horrible and also as my mother always says:
plan.
“When itt h appe
ap pen
happens,nss, iitt ha pe
ap
happens.”

Yet there is so much we could do. Provide more comprehensive funding of social care. Develop
friendship schemes and clubs, so the elderly aren’t so dependent on faraway children. Rip up the
care-home model in which the elderly are objects in a chair.

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Above all, we must redraw that final panel of the triptych. Don’t wield the family as a glib solution.
Instead, acknowledge that it is hard, heart-rending work, being a Comfort of Old Age.

**A triptych refers to a set of three associated artistic works intended to be appreciated together.

WX

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6
2017 | Y6 | GP Prelim | Paper 2 | AQ Response Zhang Zhi | 17S06E

Janice Turner examines the challenges society faces in caring for the elderly.
How relevant are the issues raised for you and your society?

Turner posits that the current care-home model should be ripped up as the
elderly are treated like “objects in a chair”. In making such a statement, Turner
alludes to the challenges her society faces in building a strong elderly-care
industry to relieve family burdens due to the lack of quality care-home services.
The situation is very much relevant to China, where many elderly care-homes
are notorious for their poor quality and the lack of individualised care, with
several high-profile cases of abuse of elderly by care-home staff making headlines
in recent years. This poor quality of service could possibly be attributed to a lack
of demand for elderly-care services as most families, especially those in the rural
areas, prefer to take care of the elderly at home due to influences of Confucian
teachers and the social expectation of filial piety. As such, most residents in
elderly-care homes tend to be homeless or without stable income or family
support, making it commercially unviable to provide high-quality care-home
services. Indeed, most care-homes in China tend to be poorly maintained due
to meagre government funding and suffer from a lack of qualified personnel who
are capable of providing high-quality care, leading to poor services or even cases
of abuse. However, this cannot be said of more developed cities such as Beijing
and Shanghai, where demand for quality elderly care has been surging due to the
increasing affluence of the new middle class as well as the expanding number of
dual-income families who have little time to take care of the elderly at home.
Luxury care-homes have emerged in 1st-tier cities such Beijing, Guangzhou and
Shenzhen, charging prices as high as 10000RMB per month per person. However,
these tend to be the exception rather than the norm and improving the quality
of care-home services remains an urgent issue across China. Perhaps the key
issue lies in a lack o of acceptance to elderly-care services that is rooted in
traditional
onal values,
values, leading
lea to a lack of commercial demand and monetary
incentives to improve the quality of service. Hence, I acknowledge that Turner’s
view is largely applicable to China.

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In addition, Turner proffers the view that elderly-care by families through co-
living may face various challenges, on part due to the fact that parents do not
want to feel that “they are getting in the way”. This could be due to the distinct
habits and lifestyles of parents and children, a phenomenon particularly relevant
to China due to the drastic changes that the society has undergone for the past
30 years, especially in cities that have been at the forefront of changes.
Differences in lifestyles, habits and hobbies may potentially become a source of
inconvenience when it comes to co-living, which explains the fact that many
Chinese parents choose not to live with their children, posing challenges to the
sharing of elderly-care burden by family members. In fact, such differences have
contributed to incidences of conflicts between parents and children, a hot topic
in modern China which has inspired a whole range of literature, movies and TV
series such as “Woju” ( 㵇 ት ) depicting souring family relationships and
intergenerational gaps, which adds a further layer of complication to elderly-care
by families. Hence. Turner’s view is particularly relevant to China.

In conclusion, a number of issues mentioned by Turner find their manifestations

in China, a reflection of the fact that caring for the elderly is a common challenge
faced by many societies in today’s world. There is indeed, no easy solution to
these problems, as such challenges, as mentioned, tend to be deeply rooted in
cultural and social aspects of a nation and call for a multi-pronged approach in
ensuring quality elderly-care and dignity for those in their golden years.

Comment: An enjoyable survey of the broad range of issues that is

knowledgeable and insightful. Well done!

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7
2017 | Y5 | KI Promo | Paper 1| Section A Wang Bei Ni | 17S06F

‘Looking for foundational beliefs to ground knowledge is futile.

It is better to examine if our beliefs cohere with other beliefs.’
Discuss.

Justification is indubitably necessary for establishing that a true belief can be

considered knowledge. The question of what kinds of justification can be used
to grant claims their knowledge status is a more contentious question, and is
not one that blanket statements such as the quote in question can answer
satisfactorily. This is especially so given that the extent and type of justification
required to prove the validity of different knowledge claims vary, depending, for
example, on the certainty that such knowledge demands, as well as whether a
correspondent truth is likely accessible. Thus, I would argue that while the
search for foundational beliefs might appear futile on the grounds that the scope
of knowledge justifiable from such beliefs may be limited, whether our beliefs
are better justified based on coherent means is ultimately dependent on the
nature of the field of the knowledge, as this in turn defines the scope of
knowledge obtainable through either means of justification as well as the
usefulness of such knowledge in those fields.

Let us first establish the case for why seeking foundational beliefs to ground
knowledge could be considered futile. In the first place, the establishment of a
bedrock of indubitable beliefs is already a way to mitigate the uncertainty caused
by the problem of infinite regress of justification, wherein I can never claim to
have complete justification for a claim. One claim requires other claims as
justification, which require further proof and reasoning to prove the truth of
those claims. Yet, in the search for the foundational beliefs that are meant to
ground our knowledge in strong foundations, the first problem arises – what
beliefs can be considered as foundational? Hundreds of years later, philosophers
are stilllll d
divided
ivvided on
on this
thi issue – are our foundations established on the grounds
of necessary
ceessary aand nd eeternal
ter claims such as “I think, therefore I am” that can be
obtained purely through the processes of reason and thought, or are our
foundations established on the basis of empirical experiences that are
incorrigible? The inconclusiveness of such a debate already poses a problem to

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us if we think that knowledge must rest on a foundation, if we cannot even agree

on which foundations to use. On the other hand, if we mitigate the problem of
infinite regress based on a coherent theory of justification, the discussion
becomes more straightforward – as long as my beliefs agree with many (ideally,
of course, all) of the other claims in the belief system, I would be able to consider
my belief to be knowledge.

Further, suppose we step away from the question of whether the foundations
of knowledge lie in reason or experience, and consider each of them briefly. We
will soon realise that each of these theories of justification produces a collection
of knowledge claims that is incredibly limited in scope. For one, the type of
knowledge that can be obtained through rationalism is of analytical nature and a
priori – such knowledge, as in the case of the knowledge that “a bachelor is an
unmarried man”, is, in general, true by definition, and does not require much
justification anyway, due to its self-evident nature, but is very limited in scope as
it does not tell us whether someone is a bachelor or whether bachelors even
exist. On the other hand, empiricism appears to give us knowledge that is most
useful and commonly found in the real world, since knowledge is based on sense
experiences. However, while I cannot doubt that I am having a sense perception
of feeling breathless while running after a bus, for example, it is conceivable that
my sense perceptions are not infallible. In addition, both rationalism and
empiricism’s limited scope is further fleshed out in the argument that both
methods of justification eventually lead to the threat of solipsism – I am thinking,
so I know I exist (rationalist), or I am experiencing sensations, so I must exist
(empiricist), and the same could be said of you, but I cannot know that you exist
inasmuch as I cannot think for you and feel what you feel.

A coherent system of justification, on the contrary, does not fall prey to such
issues of limited knowledge, as evident from the prime example of the significant
progress in fields of knowledge that have used coherentist frameworks, such as
in Science and History, for example. While rationalism and empiricism will never
be able to escape the trap of limited scope of knowledge, beyond the certain
knowledge that we exist, we can construct much of our current knowledge
today bbyy eensuring
nsuring tthat
hat individual knowledge claims can fit into the web of other
knowledge
ed
dge clclaims present –In science, for example, we have successfully created
laims pres
a consistent system of knowledge in classical mechanics, describing the laws of
gravitation and the action of forces, which enables one to generate more
knowledge consistent with such laws, such as “the reason that I am able to sit

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without falling due to the upwards force exerted on me by the chair”, or more
impactful claims about the planetary motions of celestial objects around the Sun.
Thus, in view of the scope of knowledge that can be generated, it may indeed be
better to examine if our beliefs cohere with other ones.

However, while it appears that we can obtain much more useful knowledge of
the world through coherentist means than through foundational claims,
coherentist frameworks might, upon close examination, turn out to be limited
as well, albeit in a different way. This mainly arises from the problem of under-
determination of which system of beliefs can really be considered as knowledge
in the face of competing systems. If we can really establish knowledge by simply
examining whether a belief is consistent with other beliefs in its system, then
beliefs that describe a single phenomenon, even if they are contradicting, must
all be the true and considered as knowledge. For example, a person who has
only been exposed to the revisionist history in Japan must be equally
knowledgeable in claiming that the Japanese did no wrong in World War Two
as opposed to another person in China who believes that the Japanese
committed heinous crimes; but it is impossible for both of these claims, as
contradictory as they are, to both stand true, even though they are equally well-
justified in their belief systems. The incompatibility of belief systems to be
compared suggests that knowledge obtained through coherentist means may be
much less certain, especially when the correspondent absolute truth is
inaccessible and knowledge claims such as those in History cannot be easily
verified due to a lack of credible evidence.

Hence, we arrive at a crossroads – knowledge acquired from foundational beliefs

and justification is ridiculously limited in scope; while coherentist frameworks
have an advantage over foundationalism in this regard, they are also limited in
being able to ascertain truth in the face of contradictory, equally well-
substantiated theories. Perhaps, then, we can turn to another criterion to
examine if our beliefs are better justified using coherentist or foundationalist
means – tthe
he uusefulness
seefullnes and purpose of the knowledge generated through each
framework.
work. After
After all,
all, we cannot off-handedly dismiss foundationalism as being
completely futile or useless – the credibility of the mathematical enterprise rests
on the deductive means by which mathematical theories are deduced from
axioms that are necessary truths. However, we realise that even in math, the

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pinnacle of the rationalist enterprise, whether more complex mathematical

theories are accepted as knowledge is still bound by how well it coheres with
other beliefs. The ABC conjecture is a prime example – even though the proof
can ostensibly be said to have been found, the radical and unusual tools used in
the proof have prompted many mathematicians to reject Mochizuki’s proof. The
lack of consistency between Mochizuki’s method of proof and the usual methods
has caused it to be rejected as untrue mathematical knowledge, thus
demonstrating that even an enterprise that is primarily foundationalist in nature
is eventually subject to peer review and requires justification through
coherentist means. This seems especially so in math where comprehensible
proofs and verifiable theories are demanded, as is increasingly the case in today’s
world where the need for pragmatic knowledge application is prioritised.

Thus, while foundational beliefs might be extremely limited in the justification of

further knowledge, foundationalism does guarantee the certainty of its claims
and has been rather successful in enterprises like math that demand certainty in
knowledge. However, in view of considerations of applicability and usefulness,
coherentist frameworks do seem to triumph, although not without its own
shortcomings of a trade-off in certainty.

Comments:

Great discussion here, Beini! Lively engagement of the main issues raised in the question,
with constant reference to both ways of justification and thorough evaluation of each,
leading to a well-justified conclusion. Consistently clear piece here as well. Well done.

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8
2017 | Y5 | KI Promo | Paper 1| Section B Joey Lee | 17S03L

Critically assess the view that human knowledge is too complex to

be analysed – and known scientifically.

Science and the Scientific Method have always been prized for its rigour and
objectivity in analysing the natural world, providing theories and predictions that
have been proven to work countless times. It is not difficult to see why humans
would want to apply such a robust method to everything that they study,
including the human society – so that they can generate useful findings that share
the same objectivity and rigour as that of scientific claims. Hence, the positivist
approach to social sciences was adopted to study human society in a scientific
way, using graphs and statistics to quantify human behaviour. However, by
adopting such a method, we inevitably lose some of the natural variance present
in society and assume that there is a social reality that we can objectively study,
which may not be the case as there is a qualitative difference between the natural
world and social world.
First, unlike in the natural world, experiments concerning human society are
practically impossible. Experiments are carried out in the natural sciences to
verify or falsify a certain relationship postulated between two variables, by
controlling all other variables involved and isolating the effects of the
independent variable on the dependent. However, in a social world, the number
of variables to be controlled far outnumbers what the social scientists can
control and some just cannot be controlled. For example, to investigate the
effect of upbringing on the academic success of a child, to strictly follow the
Scientific Method would require social scientists to create two families that are
identical except for the type of upbringing the parents offer to the child to isolate
the relationship between the supposed dependent and independent variable.
However, this is not only impractical, it also invites ethical debate on treating
humansnss as just
ust test
as ju test subjects.
su Furthermore, even if identical conditions such as
type off housing,
housing, qquality
ualit of life, or number of siblings can be simulated, the are
human factors that cannot be controlled by specification, for instance, the
temperament of the child. Hence, setting up experiments to study human society
is not possible given that the human world is so complex and multifaceted. Social

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scientists are then forced to pick out natural case studies, but those do not come
by often and will limit the amount of knowledge that social scientists can produce.
Therefore, scientific experimentation cannot be wholly applied to the analysis of
human society.
Next, to study human society scientifically, positivists often adopt the use of
numbers and statistics to analyse correlations and trends, or quantify certain
concepts. However, the usage of numbers, as interpretivists would argue, strip
social phenomena of their meaning and motivations behind social actions. For
instance, in the natural world, the fall of a comet can be quantified by the distance,
speed at which the comet falls but in a social setting, one same action, the raising
of a hand for example, can mean many different things – to ask for permission,
to interrupt, to clarify something – and these are the meanings that should be
investigated in the pursuit of knowledge of social science, instead of how many
times hands have been raised or how fast a hand is being raised. More often that
not, the reasons and motivations why a person acted a certain way tell us more
about the social phenomenon than how often a person does them. Numbers
also fail to capture the meaning of many abstract concepts, for example the
concept of ‘power’ cannot be quantified using numbers from 1 to 10, not to
mention the fact that different individuals will have different interpretations of
how much ‘power’ each number on the scale represents, showing the
inadequacy of using clinical, value-free methods of scientific analysis being applied
to the study of human society.
Additionally, human society is constantly subjected to change and transformation,
hence an attempt to study human society using scientific methods to gain some
sort of generalisation will be unsuitable. Humans do not always act rationally as
assumed in Economics, and may not be bound by the rules of a society. Humans
are unpredictable and everyone may have a different response to a similar stimuli.
Thus, studying effects of, say, a war on citizens of a country may not be able to
yield significant statistical generalisations above the overall effects, because
people are bound to have varying opinions that can hardly be quantified using
scientific analysis.
Lastly, a social reality may not even exist to be studied or known scientifically.
As mentioned,
en oned, society
ntio society is made up of unpredictable humans, and social norms
and rules constantly
onstan changing, for instance, in the political world or the
ulles aree co
anthropological world. The ever-changing nature of the social world suggests
that society may not be bound by hard and fast rules that govern society, as
August Comte believes. Terms used in the social scientific world or in society

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can just be concepts constructed by humans, to better understand or explain

the social world and what is going on around them. Moreover, the nature of the
social world is double hermeneutic – such that the theories we learn and hold
true will inevitably shape the world that we are trying to study. Hence, as the
social world seems to be so elusive and ever-changing, affected by the theories
that we attempt to come up with, a scientific approach, which strives for surety,
generalisations, predictive ability and objectivity cannot be applied to the study
of human society.
However, this is not to say that nothing can be known of human society through
scientific analysis. While Science cannot fully capture the extent of complex
human behaviour, attempts at analysing the human society using Science can still
provide us with useful, applicable knowledge of human society in certain fields
of social science. For instance, in Economics, while not all human beings act
rationally, there tend to be general trends that large populations of people
conform to, like when the price of a good increases, society tends to demand
less of it naturally. Hence, while specific analysis of why each individual chose to
do so is missing, in Economics, the Law of Demand is still a useful observation
that can help predict market changes when price of something increases, and is
a justified, true belief of the human society alike scientific facts. Thus, while
scientific analysis of our human society cannot give specific predictions like it can
in natural science, general trends and patterns can still be elicited through
observations and less than perfect experiment conditions, giving rise to
knowledge of human society.
In addition, we should consider the purpose of analysing human society
scientifically. In the positivist approach to social science, the aim of scientific
analysis is not to obtain 100% absolute laws that society lives by but to conclude
plausible generalisations and relationships between factors in the social world.
Hence, in this sense, where the term ‘analysis’ has been defined as the systematic
observation of the human society, scientific analysis of the human world is still
possible.
Last but not least, it is important to note that scientific analysis of a human
society is rarely used on its own and is often corroborated with theoretical
evidence
ce and
and quantitative
quantita analysis to generate knowledge of society together.
While scientific
sciienttific analysis
annalysi may not be able to produce conclusive knowledge about
human society due to the limitations mentioned, by cohering with other ‘facts’
established in the social scientific community, propositions put forth by scientific
analysis can also be viewed as justified and true. Despite not knowing if a social

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reality exists to be discovered, this does not compromise the applicability of

knowledge obtained by scientific analysis, such as the applicability of Keynesian
theory of Economics, and this part of human society can still be known to be
true through its countless effective predictions of how the social world will react
generally.
Therefore, while there are parts of the human society that cannot be analysed
scientifically, for instance the purposes and emotions of social creatures,
scientific analysis can still be used when investigating general trends of human
behaviour to generate knowledge of human society. The extent to which
scientific analysis can be used will then differ across different fields of social
science, depending on the aims of the field.

Examiner’s Comments:
A very good response here, Joey! Squarely relevant essay that deals with the issue head
on and spot on, demonstrating a clear understanding of the nature and construction of
knowledge in Social Science. Examples provided are relevant, although the links to the
argument can be clearer. Some really good insight was offered, too, but some could
have been better explained. Overall, good job!

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9
2017 | Y5 | GP Promotional Examination Meng Bo Kang | 18S07A

“Media regulation is needed now more than ever.” Discuss.

“Exclusive! Exclusive! Read on to find out more!” How many times have we
seen these types of headlines in the media today? In our newspapers, television
and social media, these types of sensationalised headlines and stories which
contain few truths dominate, misleading readers and advancing their own
agendas. Given these problems, we are forced to consider media regulation as
one way to resolve some of these issues. However, I would argue that despite
serious problems observed, the media should not be subjected to more
regulation, as the media serves a vital purpose in society, checking the
government and supporting worthwhile causes. Furthermore, due to the rise
of new media, it might be impossible to fully regulate media in this day and age.

Those who support the regulation of the media argues that it sows divisiveness
amongst citizens and, if left unregulated, would do more harm than good. I
agree that the media does cause harm at times and is guilty of advancing its
own causes at the expense of social unity. For example, media outlets such as
FOX News, an alternate right-wing news agency, were the loudest proponents
of the conspiracy theory that then President Obama was a Muslim. FOX also
reported on a “terrorist attack” in Sweden, to draw a link between mass
migration and terrorism. While it was later found that no such attack had
occurred, the report had caused irrevocable damage to relations between the
already paranoid white community and the migrant population. This, in turn,
resulted in an increasing amount of racial attacks on migrants by the alternate
right, causing a climate of fear and mistrust amongst the American people.
Perhaps, as Lee Kuan Yew once said, “freedom of the media” is really just
“freedom of news editors to advance their own agenda”.

However,
ver, ddespite
espite tthe
he damages that an unregulated media can cause, I believe
that it is vital for the media to have enough freedom to carry out its functions.
A truly free media can act as an important check and balance on the
government, helping to convey the opinions of the public to those in power.

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As the saying goes “Absolute power corrupts absolutely”; any government that
can do as it wishes would not be beneficial to its citizens in the long run. The
media, the government and the citizens are often said to form the three pillars
of democracy. A government that is able to control the media would be able
to control the flow of information to its citizens, advancing its own agenda
through the media. One clear example would be North Korea, where the
media is completely subservient to the Party and is used as a tool to brainwash
and control its citizens. To prevent such an Orwellian scenario from occurring,
the media must have a certain amount of freedom from regulations and
government control.

Also, the media must have the ability and space to support and champion
positive causes4. The media can unite people behind beneficial campaigns, such
as the appeal for donations after the Nepal earthquake. A media that is not
able to do so would not be as effective in causing change. For example, after
the Rwandan killings, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) ran a story
about the massacres. However, due to government regulations against blood
and violence, the BBC was forced to censor the report, omitting many of the
worst pictures and videos. This caused the public to think that the situation
was not that serious and severely reduced the public outcry that would have
followed, resulting in less action from the international community. This clearly
shows that regulation, however well-intentioned, would hamper the ability of
the media to effect change for positive causes. Thus, the media should not be
further regulated.

Finally, we have to consider the feasibility of regulating the media today,

especially social media. With the rise of new media, more and more people,
especially the young, are getting their information from sites such as Twitter
and Facebook instead of traditional newspapers and television. Whilst
newspapers and television are relatively easy to regulate, with editors
determining the types of information that are put out, new media is much
more difficult to control. With new media, news are shared with a click of a
button, making it nearly impossible to regulate the spread of information. On
social m
media,
edia, bbogus
ogus ssites
it look as legitimate as real ones, with fake news - such

4
Editor’s comments: This is a statement on what the media should be able to do, in an ideal
situation. It would help if this topic sentence, as well as the paragraph, explicitly engaged
the question’s key term “now more than ever”. E.g. why is this championing of positive
causes particularly necessary in today’s context?
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as Donald Trump being endorsed by the Pope, a claim which was shared a
million times - being disseminated quickly. Government regulations of online
media is often inadequate; even supposedly fool proof firewalls are not 100%
effective. A small change of a websites IP address would allow sites to
circumvent bans and continue to operate. Thus, we can see that government
regulation of the media is not entirely feasible.

In conclusion, although media could be used as a tool to sow divisiveness, I

believe that it can also be used to do good, acting as a check and balance on
the government and supporting worthwhile causes. Furthermore, I believe that
complete regulation of the media is not feasible, especially new media, as it is
impossible for anybody to completely suppress the flow of information online.
Thus, I believe that the media should not be regulated.

Comments:

Fluently argued. Your response shows good insight and a good range of examples was
employed. Keep it up.

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10
2017 | Y5 | GP Promo | Paper 1 Natalie Quah | 18S06O

Consider the value of parks and natural spaces in your society.

Within Bukit Timah Nature Reserve alone, there is a greater number of

wildlife and plant species than there is in the entire North American
continent 5. This goes to show why Singapore is known for being one of the
richest cities in the world in terms of its biodiversity, and this can only be
attributed to the natural spaces and parks that serve as thriving ecosystems.
These natural spaces might escape the minds of many, especially when it comes
to talking about the future of the country and its development, and its value is
often debated amongst various nature societies and the government. However,
it is my firm belief that the parks and natural spaces in Singapore offer great
value with regard to our country’s growth and development.

In the past couple of decades alone, there have been multiple disputes
regarding the conservation of our nature spaces. Such disputes can imply that
we, as a society, do not value these spaces; and indeed, some of these debates
have concluded in the destruction of precious bits of nature. This has caused
many citizens to question the value of our nature spaces and many debates
have hence taken place. One apt example is the whole controversy
surrounding the development of Bukit Brown Cemetery into the expansion of
a road in order to provide relief for traffic congestion. Bukit Brown was not
only a cemetery, but it was also famous for its thriving biodiversity as many
bird watching groups have gone there either to study the wildlife or just to
enjoy the scenery. However, it was eventually decided that Bukit Brown had to
make way for development. Currently, we also face the challenge of making
the decision of whether the new Cross Island Line, a future train line, should
be built through the Central Catchment Nature Reserve, cutting through part
of the 0.3%
0.3% ooff pprimary
rimary rainforest left in Singapore. These examples highlight
how, inn Singapore,
Singapporee our
our natural spaces and parks are seen to be of little value.

5
Editor’s comments: This statistic has been both perpetuated and disputed, though
researchers on both sides highlight that Bukit Timah, being in the tropics, certainly have
more tree species that many temperate countries.
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After all, our country is a small city facing issues like land scarcity, and we are
in need of constant development for the future. Hence the value of our natural
spaces is often questioned and pondered over, in lieu of new, urbanised areas.

However, there does seem to be hope in society’s valuation of our natural

spaces as Singapore continues its conservation and greening efforts due to new
governmental policies and stronger advocacy from nature enthusiasts. We do,
after all, dub ourselves the “City in a Garden”. It is also one of the aims of our
National Parks Board to transform Singapore into not just a city, but a garden
with thriving nature as well. With these measures in place, there is hope for
our untouched natural spaces as can be seen in the conservation of Chek Jawa
Wetlands in Pulau Ubin. Just a decade ago, it was revealed that Chek Jawa was
slated for development, which meant that Singapore was to lose one of her
most valued and important natural spaces that also serves as a vital bird
migration stopover. It was then when Ria Tan, one of our most active nature
advocates, stepped up together with many others and managed to petition and
convince the government to reconsider their plans. This was successful,
resulting in the beautiful and thriving wetlands we have today. Another, also
famed, natural space in Singapore has a different story to tell. This is the
Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park. Unlike Chek Jawa, which was already a natural space
to begin with, Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park was a canal, or a mere ‘longkang’, as
the locals call it. It is a very apt example to show how the government places
value on our natural spaces. In recent years, the government has decided to
transform this huge canal into a beautiful park, with a stream running water
right in the middle of it. This park can be said to be Singapore’s most famous
park, and moreover, it also serves as a flood control because the developers
modelled it after the floodplains that occur naturally. It has been so successful
that much wildlife has come to reside in it, with purple herons, hornbills, and
not to mention regular visits from our beloved otters! The very fact that there
is a strong voice in support of nature, coupled with the government’s immense
efforts in the park’s development, that proves the high value and love
Singaporeans have for nature.

Unbeknownst
nownst to
kn to many,
many Singapore’s natural history has a huge part to play in
our identity,
entiity showing
showiing that
t our natural spaces and parks do indeed offer value
to our society. When it comes to national identity or concepts of a shared
history, people often think of food, iconic playgrounds and perhaps the
nostalgic five stones game our parents used to play. Little do our citizens think

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of nature. However, nature does, arguably, have an important role to play in

Singapore. Sir Stamford Raffles, whom many claim to have founded Singapore,
was not just the person sent to colonise different places, but he was also a
naturalist. He discovered many species in our region, including the elusive
Raffles Banded Langur right here in Singapore. Alfred Wallace was another
naturalist who described Singapore to be a place where most of his discoveries
were made. During his short trip in Singapore back in the 1800s, he discovered
hundreds of new species of beetles, marking Singapore’s name in natural
history. Our natural spaces such as our nature reserves and parks honour that
part of our history. They remind us of our national identity as a “Wild City”, as
the legendary Sir David Attenborough puts it, and it is this special history that
sets us apart from all other cities in the world; and just like how our heritage
centres and spaces are valued for the reminders of our past, our natural spaces
serve as good reminders, remnants and places of our living past. This makes
natural spaces even more valuable and important in our society’s steps toward
the future.

Presenting a more futuristic perspective where society continuously makes

leaps and bounds in technology, I argue that this can only further increase the
value of our natural spaces and parks. Technological advancement and nature
can co-exist and technology can be said to even raise the importance of nature.
As residents of Singapore start to lead an increasingly sedentary life, where
most of the work is done digitally, it is vital that they start to lead a more
active lifestyle. That is where our parks come in. Parks and nature spaces are
the ideal places for recreation, exercise, and bonding with family and friends. In
fact, our Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong encouraged Singaporeans to adopt a
more active lifestyle in his National Day Rally, in which he highlighted that one
in three Singaporeans develop Type 2 Diabetes. He even posted pictures of
himself in different parks on his social media to encourage people to go
outdoors and have fun. These examples highlight the fact that we need these
parks and green spaces now more than ever, given the kind of lifestyle that we
lead. And as mentioned earlier, technology has also made us increasingly aware
of our human
human iimpact on the environment. As climate change and global
mpactt o
warmingng bbecome
ecome serious
serio issues on a global scale, Singapore is aiming to step
up her game in promoting a more environmentally-friendly mindset and
creating a culture of sustainability. With the Sustainable Singapore Blueprint
being implemented a couple of years back, the government aims to educate its

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citizens to start playing their part in creating a greener future. Our natural
spaces and parks give people a reason to do so. As they feel a more personal
connection when they visit these spaces, children are more inclined to grow up
with an environment-centric mindset and adults are more willing to support
efforts in sustainability. Many groups have started recently, such as the
NUSToddycats and the Herpetological Society of Singapore, to start
advocating for sustainability and conservation by using these spaces to take the
public on walks to educate them of our precious biodiversity and nature.
Without these spaces, the lifestyles and attributes of society would be
negatively affected and it would be difficult to substitute the impact these
spaces bring.

In conclusion, natural spaces and parks in Singapore are at times seen as a

hindrance to our growing society as we face major problems like land scarcity;
however, there is no doubt in the value of these spaces as they have played a
great role in society, both in the past and in the present. Looking to the future,
our natural spaces and parks have an evolving purpose to remind us of the
importance of nature and to allow us to relax and lead healthy lifestyles. It is in
these places where many find peace and solace from the city’s hectic lifestyle,
and take time to step back and appreciate the true, pristine nature of our
home. Ultimately, the value of these spaces is hence determined by the needs
of our society and our views toward them.

Comments:

Good range of examples employed. Interesting perspectives adopted to show how the
natural spaces and parks of Singapore contributed to society. Students are reminded,
however, not to get too carried away with the description of the example. Rather,
explicit links to the question should always be provided.

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11
2017 | Y5 | GP Promo | Paper 2 | Passages

Passage 1

Johnny Oleksinski explains why society has a poor opinion of millennials.

Millennials 6 are the worst. I should know – I am one.

Recently, a colleague’s comment hit me like a stray selfie stick: “I love being a millennial because it’s
so much easier to be better than the rest of our generation. Because they suck.” She’s right. We’re
bad. We’re really bad.

Nonetheless, I fight back against the traits that have come to define millennials: entitlement,
dependency, non-stop complaining, laziness, Kardashians. People like me are called “old souls” or “26-
going-on-76”. We’re chided by our peers for silly things such as enjoying adulthood and commuting to
a physical office. Contentment has turned us into lepers. Or worse: functioning human beings.
This is my number one rule: Do whatever millennials don’t. Definite no-nos include quitting a job or
relationship the moment my mood drops from ecstatic to merely content; expecting the world to
kowtow to my every childish whim; and assuming that I am always the most fascinating person in the
room.

Millennials are obsessed with their brand. They co-opted the term from Apple and Xerox to be – like
so many other things – all about them. The trouble is that a young person’s brand rarely extends
beyond a screen: Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn 7, YouTube. When you meet them, they’re never quite
as witty, attractive or entrepreneurial as they seem on Facebook.

The social awkwardness of 20-somethings is a problem caused by two enemies: egos and smartphones.
But to be a good networker – still the best way to secure a job – you need to stop filtering mediocre
selfies, look up from your device and string together a few words with strangers. Preferably, words
about them.

The self-obsession doesn’t go down well at the office, either. Employers are terrified of millennials.
They’re serial job hoppers: 21 percent of the commitment-phobes leave their job after less than a year;
60 percent are open to it. Think of it as binge-working. And once they do land their dream job? They
want to work from their apartment. A US study said work-life balance drives the career choices of 75
percent of millennials. In my experience, however, the balance generally tilts toward wherever you can
type in your T-shirt and shorts.

The situation looks bleak – but we can turn it around, millennials. Stop blaming everybody. Don’t blame
the economy, your employer, the media, your mom, the weatherman, George R. R. Martin 8 . By
absolving ourselves of responsibility, we’ve become forever 8-year-olds, tattling on the world in hopes
it will better
etter our situation. It won’t. It will only make it crummier.

6 There are multiple definitions of the millennial (also known as “Gen Y”) age bracket, but most tend to fall within
the “born between 1980 to 2000” range.
7 Professional networking site that helps individuals connect with other professionals in their industry.
8
Author most well-known for the “Game of Thrones” series of books.

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Stop being so insular. Stop curating your social media accounts – where most of your interaction takes
place – to be in total agreement with your opinions. Most of the world doesn’t think the way you do.
Try empathy on for size. Befriend some dissenters, grab a beer with them. Listen to what they have to
say.

Stop waiting around for something big to happen. Getting a job is hard. Primping your LinkedIn account
and hoping your God-given greatness will finally be recognised by everybody else will get you zip, zilch,
zero. You need to leave your apartment, meet people, be assertive, interested, open. I’ve gotten full-
time jobs by sitting at bars and dancing at wedding receptions.

Fellow millennials, I want to like you. I really do. But you make it near impossible sometimes.

WX

Passage 2

Sam Tanenhaus challenges the negative stereotypes about millennials.

Suddenly, millennials are everywhere. Not that this group was ever invisible. What’s changed is their
status. Coddled and helicoptered, catered to by 24-hour TV cable networks, fussed over by marketers
and college recruiters, dissected by psychologists, demographers and trend-spotters, the millennial
generation has come fully into its own.

Why this microscopic attention? One answer is that millennials, the first people to come of age in the
21st century, with its dizzying rate of technological change, have been forced to invent new ways of
navigating it. What else sets millennials apart? The usual answer seems to be “narcissism” – self-
absorption indulged to comical extremes: the breathlessly updated Facebook profile, the cascade of
selfies, the Kardashians.

But a very different picture emerges from the Pew Research Center’s reports on millennials. What Pew
found was not an entitled generation but a complex and introspective one. Its members have
weathered large public traumas: the terrorist attacks of September 11, costly (and unresolved) wars,
the Great Recession, the flood of images of Iraq and Katrina… For a generation reared on apocalyptic
videos and computer-generated movie epics, these events showed the real world to be as easily
disrupted as the virtual one, even as the grown-ups in charge seemed overwhelmed and overmatched,
always a step behind.

It is no surprise that the millennial generation is sceptical of institutions – political and religious – and
prefers to improvise solutions to the challenges of the moment. In a range of areas, millennials have
not only caught up, but have jumped out in front. Consider their approach to the workplace. Thanks to
the 200808 economic crash, millennials
m know how fleeting wealth can be. Their solution? Acquire not
more, bubut less.
ut le s. A report
ess
ss. reep by the Brookings Institution 9 noted that almost two-thirds of millennials said
orrtt by
po
they would
ou d rrather
uld ath
at make
heer m
maake $$40,000
40 a year at a job they love than $100,000 a year at a job they think is
boring.

9
Non-profit public policy organisation that conducts research leading to new ideas that aim to solve
problems facing society at the local, national and global level.

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Even in the realm of fashion, many are indifferent to prestige brands and lavish advertising campaigns,
preferring to get “disposable” clothing at H&M or Zara that is claimed to be “completely free of
pesticides, chemicals and bleach”. The
do-goodish pitch is aimed squarely at millennials, who collectively favour companies that embrace the
values of good citizenship. And consider food. The new generation may have had health-consciousness
drilled into them from young, but they have raised it to a new level. “For millennials, food isn’t just
food. It’s community”, The Washington Post recently reported, highlighting the Silver Diner chain,
which has developed a locavore 10 menu and started catering to those on vegan, vegetarian and gluten-
free diets.
Taken together, these habits and tastes look less like narcissism than communalism. And its highest
value isn’t self-promotion, but its opposite, empathy – an open-minded and open-hearted connection
to others. Indeed, millennials have made social media, with its many opportunities for “oversharing”
self-display, a means of communication that pushes outward, instead of turning inward. Brandon
Stanton, a 30-year-old former bond trader and self-taught camera portraitist, has created a famous
example in “Humans of New York”. His popular photo blog, featuring ordinary people and interviews
about their lives, gives dignity to what might otherwise be forgotten faces in the urban crowd.
Empathy was a theme sounded repeatedly by the millennials interviewed for this article. One said he
hoped to succeed because “the better you’re doing, the more you can share with other people.”
Another pointed out that while he was nursed on the traditional American dream – “if you worked
hard, got good grades and did all the right stuff, you would succeed” – he has developed a more
pragmatic version suited to 21st century economic realities: “I know that as hard as I work,
I very well may fail. And it’s liberating to know that.” The key word is “liberating”. In the age of the
start-up, of fortunes gained and lost overnight, of flawed ideas in need of continual debugging and re-
tweaking, failure is the default outcome and, at times, the ground zero of eventual triumph.

No wonder, then, that “millennials are the nation’s most dogged optimists”, as Pew reported. “They
believe their own best days are ahead.” They, and we, can expect some less-than-best days, too.
Cultural transformations are seldom cost-free. And they’re not always permanent. Indeed, a new
generation is growing up in the world the millennials have made and may already be working on its
own revision of the nation’s moral life.

WX

10 A person who makes an effort to eat food that is grown, raised, or produced locally.

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12
2017 | Y5 | GP Promo | Paper 2 | AQ Response Yeo Kee Hwan | 18S03Q

Oleksinski and Tanenhaus have differing views about millennials in terms of

their personal characteristics and their relationship with wider society.
How applicable are these views to you and your society?
Support your answer with reference to both passages.

Both authors have touched on pertinent points relating to how a millennial in a

developed country might behave, given their preoccupation with personal
devices and technologies that they can access. However, some perspectives
ascribed to millennials in the American society may not necessarily hold true in
a relatively more traditional and conservative society like Singapore.

In paragraph 6, Oleksinski argues that the inability for young millennials, fresh
out of school, to communicate with others is caused by two main factors: “egos
and smartphones”. This is highly applicable to Singapore, given that it is a Smart
Nation 11, and many of the younger generation are the ones who are permanently
preoccupied with their phones. In fact, Singapore’s internet penetration rate is
approximately 82%, and according to some studies, our social media use is
around 77%, comparable to tech-savvy countries like South Korea. And with the
prevalence of “phubbing” that we often see on trains with young 20-somethings
completely absorbed in their virtual worlds, it is not hard to believe that even
the most basic interactions one can have in the public sphere, such as giving up
a seat on public transport for the elderly, have been foiled because all their
attention is focused on their screens. Moreover, given the number of cases of
derisive rants about races or social class that have gone viral locally, such as the
one where a millennial had asked others to “get out of her elitist face”, it is clear
that some young Singaporeans are spending much time on social media and
merely airing their own views rather than engaging others in person. Such
attitudes have warped their perspectives of the world, making them tone-deaf
to the concerns
concerns of
of tthose
ho around them and lost as to how to interact with others,

11
Editor’s comment: The notion of a ‘Smart Nation’ is not merely one of people owning
smartphones; it is a government initiative to use infocomm technologies (including
smartphones) to address global urban challenges.
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especially those not from their age group. This, no doubt, contributes to their
social awkwardness in real life.

On the other hand, in paragraph 7, Tanenhaus argues that the millennial

perspective has changed from the traditional American drift, shifting form
believing that hard work guarantees success to thinking that working hard might
still cause them to fail, and that “it’s liberating to know that”. While this might
hold true in America, where markers for success have diversified to influence
sporting and artistic excellence, on top of a strong start-up culture like Silicon
Valley that encourages youths to dream of alternatives, this does not meld with
most of the Singaporean context that nurtures our millennials. In the time when
millennials were born and growing, that is the 1980s to 2000s, the focus on
academic excellence was not only heavy, it was also exclusive in many ways.
With the advent of education policies like streaming and the Gifted Education
Programme, the youths of that time would no doubt have been weaned on the
idea that doing well at school and being diligent put them on the straight-and-
narrow road to success. This ties in with the oft-championed narrative of
meritocracy, where assuming that equality of opportunity existed, people are
expected to remember that working hard was the only way up. Moreover, given
that our society still often holds to traditional makers of success like being a
lawyer or an engineer, the fact that we do not yet have as vibrant a start-up
culture or as plentiful venture capitalists as they do now in America, only further
reinforces old perspectives of success. Thus, the shift in the idea of the road to
success, and what success itself entails, is not quite as applicable to the
Singaporean society.

In conclusion, many of the behavioural traits mentioned by Oleksinski of

millennials, especially those pertaining to technology use is applicable to this
context too. However, Tanenhaus’ optimism rooted in a society that is still
fundamentally different from the Singaporean one makes his arguments less
applicable,
ble, at
ab at lleast
east in
in the
t present.

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Comments:

This is consistently cogent and convincing.

Ideas are not only well-developed, but showing sophistication and an assured grasp of
underlying issues and conditions influencing millennials here.

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13
2017 | Y5 | GP Promo | Paper 2 | AQ Response Jovan Lim | 18S03O

Oleksinski and Tanenhaus have differing views about millennials in terms of

their personal characteristics and their relationship with wider society.
How applicable are these views to you and your society?
Support your answer with reference to both passages.

Firstly, Oleksinski and Tanenhaus clash over the focus of millennials. While
Oleksinski argues that millenials are “insular” and “obsessed with their brand”,
Tanenhaus counters by citing that millennials care very much about the larger
communities and repercussions when making decisions. In response, I agree
largely with Oleksinski’s view. While millennials do purport to care about the
environment, or specific “less privileged communities”, many such claims and
actions undertaken to assert these claims are mostly with the aim of improving
social standing, and advancing individual status. For example, in Singapore, shops
selling everything “cool” from acai bowls to freshly-pressed kale juice have been
warmly embraced by millennials – not with the goal of health, or community
development, but for that amazing Instagram photo with good mood lighting to
“post on my main [Instagram account]”. Rather than being framed as
environmentally-friendly alternatives, salad bowls and other cool getups are used
to frame carefully curated social media feed. In fact, many of such fad foods are
not actually environmentally-friendly or community-friendly – quinoa and acai
sourced from South America requires transport via plane, and with it tonnes of
carbon emissions, while cheap “pesticide-free clothing” tends to employ
exploited, underpaid Bangladeshi workers. In fact, many local millennials still
aspire to branded goods, such as Chanel and Bulgari, or their more
contemporary iterations, popular streetwear brands such as Supreme and
Vetements, to furnish their wardrobe and improve their self-image. As such,
millennial focus is very much centred on self-promotion rather than communal
improvement.

Additionally,
onally Oleksinski
Olekksinsk describes millennials as serial pessimists who blame just
about everybody, whereas Tanenhaus states that they are “the … most dogged
optimists” and “believe [that] their own best days are ahead”. Once again, I
largely agree with Oleksinski’s view. While it may be a product of Singapore’s

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already-established “complaining” culture, the need to complain seems to have

expounded in the millennial generation, and manifested in various forms
commonly perceived as trendy. “Low key wanna die” and “it’s tough” have
formed popular, even ironic catch-phrases commonly tossed around the school
population. The need to complain about insignificant injustices and portray one’s
life as boring, depressing and without life (at least, privately) has arguably been
necessary to fit in with the larger community beset with the copious demands
of schoolwork, and bogged down by the rigid examination framework. With
Trump as the leader of the “free” world, and perceived backward democratic
systems in Singapore (which differ greatly from liberal democratic ones), many
millennials have taken to social media networking sites to complain – such as in
the wake of the recent presidential election, or lack thereof – but take no action
to attempt effecting change in the political system, because we are ultimately
powerless and excluded from the complex governmental machinery. With
rampant disillusionment and a doggedly depressed mood, it can be said that
millennials are generally pessimistic who prefer to blame their injustices on
others.

Lastly, Oleksinski argues that millennials are poor interactors because they only
communicate via social media, while Tanenhaus argues that millennials are adept
at it, and harness social media to reach out to others. In this respect, I agree
with Tanenhaus. While millennials do spend an (overly) long time on social media
platforms, social media has also emerged as a new avenue and platform for social
discourse. While Halimah Yaacob’s ascent to the presidency did spark many
complaints and jabs, many millennials, including my friends, took their
ruminations over national identity, meritocracy and race to Facebook and
Instagram. While social media may not be perfect, it provides an open, accessible
platform for millennials to espouse their views and engage with those with
different viewpoints, at least in Singapore. I may even so far to argue that it
sharpens the mind and encourages millennials to communicate their ideas, and
to go on doing so in real life. As such, given millennials’ ability to make use of
social media to exchange views and even carry on discussions in real life in
Singapore,
ore, millennials
milllennials can generally be viewed as good and willing
conversationalists
rssationalistss iinstead
nste of poor ones.

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Comments:

An enjoyable read! Sardonic too! Lots of spark here with a good degree of consistency
shown in monitoring and deliberating points raised with rich examples to boot as well.

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14
2018 | Y6 | GP CT1 | Paper 1 Sng Hong | 18A01C

‘City living is becoming undesirable’. Do you agree?

“Gold-hatted, high-bouncing lover, I must have you.” This epigraph from F.

Scott Fitzgerald’s novel ‘The Great Gatsby’ exemplifies the ideal ‘American
Dream’ depiction of city living – wealth, social mobility, as well as the fulfilment
of fervent desires – the belief that the Western American cities in the 1920s
presented vast opportunities for prosperity. Today, major cities in the world
still remain the desired destinations for many, given that, just like in the past,
‘city living’ genuinely offers material fulfilment, such as job opportunities. On
the other hand, city living is becoming undesirable in an unprecedented way –
the city lifestyles of today can take a psychological, physical, and ironically, even
a financial toll on its inhabitants. Thus, while city living continues to promise
opportunities for its residents, its costs and harms may outweigh its benefits
and thus, ‘city living’ may indeed be becoming less ideal in a way that far
surpasses that of the past.

Just like in the past, major cities offer immense opportunities to its inhabitants,
and for those seeking material prosperity, city living may seem ideal. The
higher levels of education and employment opportunities, as well as access to
symbols of wealth and the “high-bouncing” life – such as branded bags, sports
cars, mansions and the like – show how city living remains ideal if one desires
material fulfilment. In Singapore, high levels of education enable those living in
the city access to higher-paying jobs, with “big money” jobs such as becoming
lawyers or doctors amassing as much as over $4000 in their starting pay. This
is similar to the employment scene in China, where people from the rural
areas flock to major cities like Shenzhen and Beijing, evidence of how city living
is evidently seen to be the way to a more prosperous life. Citing a historical
example,
plle, the
the positive
positive perception
p of city living’s opportunities today is as in the
past, duri
during which
hichh we witnessed the mass migration of Poles, Serbs and other
ing wh
neighbouring peoples into Germany in the 1960s. Due to the rapid
industrialisation of cities in Germany, industries became labour-intensive and
for those seeking job opportunities in Germany, city living represented the

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hope of a city income and the means to escape from the poverty of their war-
stricken homelands. Therefore, just like in the past, city living is perceived to
represent immense opportunities, and for those that desire prosperity,
remains a desirable option.

In reality, however, city living is inseparable from the various physical costs of
living in an increasingly polluted environment due to industrialisation and is
thus undesirable. Ironically, the very advancement of technology that makes
city living seem an attractive idea also contributes to massive amounts of
pollution, which in turn becomes a huge health risk for city-dwellers. In today’s
world, powerful corporations own thousands of large-scale factories that emit
harmful gases such as carbon monoxide into the atmosphere during
production – the very same companies that offer all those job opportunities
are ruining the lives of their workers at the same time. Since city living is quite
inseparable from industrial areas, inhabitants of cities are often at risk of
inhaling polluted air or drinking contaminated water. One good example would
be the city of Shanghai, in China, where the Pollution Index12 can reach up to
400 – way above the acceptable limit of 150. This means that ‘city living’ may
also entail such health risks that could offset any semblance of prosperity or
material gains. Another example would be the Fukushima nuclear plant
disaster 13 in Japan in 2011. Even though the nuclear power plant was far away
from the more densely populated city areas, its breakdown and emission of
radiation following the 2011 earthquake still had an adverse effect on city-
dwellers miles away, with hundreds being hospitalised due to over-exposure to
radiation. It is not that all inhabitants necessarily face such pollution, but city
living inextricably creates these health risks, in that it relies on pollutive
technological and industrial processes necessary for rapid growth. Thus, the
various potential health risks associated with city living may diminish its
promise of a better life, making it undesirable.

Furthermore, city living, due to its fast pace of life and immense competition,
has also become synonymous with high stress levels, fatigue and a psychological
toll on its inhabitants. In the unrelenting race for economic prosperity, the
obsession with
siion w ith material
materia gains, and indeed the very jobs that epitomise
economic opportunity
miic opport tunity themselves may create negative consequences that far

12
Strictly speaking, Shanghai uses the Air Quality Index (AQI).
13
Nuclear plant accidents are a fairly rare occurrence for cities; consider a more
commonplace example of pollution to make your evidence more representative.
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outweigh their promise of material success. In our increasingly globalised world

today, the stifling competition makes it harder and harder to find jobs –
perhaps invalidating the appeal of city living – further adding on to the high
stress levels. For instance, in Japan, the exponential rise in the number of “ka-
rou-shi” cases – fatigue-related deaths – is a worrying phenomenon that can be
traced back to the very nature of ‘city living’. In cities like Tokyo, staff often
work overtime almost every day of the week, and a tragic but unsurprising
number eventually collapse due to stress, fatigue, or other psychological or
physiological factors. This is also reflected in the high suicide rates in Japan –
one of the highest in the entire world14. In this case, ‘city living’ and the
immensely demanding lifestyle it entails may seem like a poor deal as it leads
one to pursue economic achievement at the expense of health and welfare.
The lifestyle associated with ‘city living’ has become clearly undesirable in how
it sacrifices the emotional and psychological welfare of its inhabitants for the
now increasingly limited economic opportunities it promises.

Finally, the perceived charm of better pay, more goods and services and a
higher standard of living is offset by the skyrocketing costs of ‘city living’ in
recent years, effectively rendering city living ‘undesirable’ as the initial promise
of making dreams of material attainment come true is now becoming
increasingly diluted by the financial costs of living in major cities. Due to the
rapid development of cities, vital resources such as land grow less day by day,
driving up prices for the likes of housing, increasing the costs of living. For
example, in Hong Kong, housing prices are exorbitantly high and it is not
uncommon for couples to stay with their in-laws or parents even after
marriage simply to save housing costs. In Singapore, the huge outcry in
response to Minister Josephine Teo’s comments that “not much space is
needed to have sex” when urging Singaporeans to increase the birth rate also
reflects how those living in Singapore evidently do not feel that they have the
necessary space and resources required in starting a family. This possibly
shows how ‘city living’ is in fact becoming less and less livable in recent years
due to the high costs of housing resulting from depleting resources, such as
land, es
especially
specially ffor small,
ma land-scarce cities such as Singapore and Hong Kong.
or sm

14
Japan is a country rather than a city. Thus, this sentence is unnecessary as it does not
advance the argument about cities being stressful.
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In conclusion, city living continues to be perceived as an ideal, especially in

terms of the opportunities that it provides and the possibilities of material
success. In reality, though, the various prices that its inhabitants pay – in many
ways – may make it undesirable, especially in the long term, when resources
grow scarcer gradually. Therefore, city living is indeed becoming, and will
continue to grow more ‘undesirable’.

Comments:

Reasonably thoughtful response that recognises the “dual” nature of cities though
such weighing was more successful in the first third of the essay. Nonetheless, still a
very good response, well-balanced and containing generally strong illustration.

Excellent language overall, with good variation in sentence structure. Vocabulary is

decent. Structure of essay is quite good, though stronger, more strategic use of inter/
intra-paragraph connectors and transitions would add just that extra quality.

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15
2018 | Y6 | GP CT1 | Paper 1 Zacchaeus Chok | 18S03O

‘The best way to combat climate change is through education.’ Discuss.

In 2006, politician Al Gore released the documentary ‘An Inconvenient Truth’,

detailing the irreversible effects of climate change on global ice caps and on
future generations. The intent was to bring forward the pertinence of climate
change to the forefront of our consciousness, and to establish consensus
amongst the masses. Still, even as our knowledge of climate change has increased
through various forms of education, individuals, firms and nations have hardly
been aroused to establish an effective counter to climate change. Indeed, while
education allows us to form a consensus on the issue, it is hardly the best way
to combat climate change.

It is true that educating the masses on climate change is important, for it achieves
the first step of helping the public bridge consensus and identify the issue. In
tackling any global problem, it is crucial to define the causes and substance at
hand. Such is the case with climate change, where society remains divided on
the topic due to the propagation of conspiracy theories and conflicting data. In
reality, the scientific community has already established universal consensus on
the issue – that climate change is real and is fuelled by anthropogenic factors.
Through raising awareness on the causes and consequences by means of public
talks and campaigns, along with formal education, basic facts and figures can be
made known to the public. Furthermore, the fact that governments and schools
emphasise climate change stresses the importance of the issue, such that the
public does not treat the issue lightly. For instance, the United State’s National
Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) regularly publishes satellite
images of the changing density of ice caps along with atmospheric data. By being
publiclyy aaccessible,
ccessibble,, the
the statistics reveal to us the actual extent of the problem.
For concerned
ncerned citizens,
on citizen these statistics would act as the motivating factor to
minimise their carbon footprint. For the indifferent, such education at least
serves to stem misinformation. Only when the public all agrees on the urgency
of climate change can collective action be provoked and be targeted. Hence,

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education is at least an effective way to raise awareness on the issue for future
actions to be undertaken.

However, education is ineffectual in combatting climate change because it is

difficult to effect change in people’s habits. The Pew Research Centre published
a survey on millennial attitudes to climate change – while many are
knowledgeable on the subject and are even concerned about it, very few actually
change their lifestyles in response. Today’s capitalist architecture means we
often prioritise the individual over the whole, and self-interest over
interdependence. We primarily see ourselves as consumers who seek to
maximise our own benefit through excessive consumption. This feeds into the
actions of firms, who base their production activity on consumer trends resulting
in an ecosystem which promotes wasteful spending and production. For instance,
in India, even with the introduction of energy labelling of technology products
to educate consumers on the products’ eco-friendliness, there is no visible
change in purchasing trends. Given that we abide by self-interest, we take no
regard in how our current behaviour may adversely affect the future state of the
environment. Furthermore, our individual lifestyle changes often result in
ambiguous and intangible changes in the moment, resulting in a lack of motivation
to short-change oneself for the sake of the environment. In Singapore, most
families still perceive cars as the more convenient mode of transport. Despite
repeated governmental urging and press reporting on how public transport
reduces our aggregate carbon footprint, the sentiment that it is necessary to
own a car has remain unchanged. Hence, education certainly cannot be the best
way to counter climate change given its impotence in influencing behavioural
changes.

Furthermore, educating the masses cannot be the best way to combat climate
change because firms are the main culprits of climate change. A whopping 70%
of global emissions can be attributed to 100 companies. Manufacturing,
deforestation and logging are production activities undertaken by firms, not
individuals, who are only interested in fulfilling their corporate agenda and not
the green
een agenda.
agenda. EEducating
du the public to adopt green practises like recycling
amounts
ntts to
to nothing
othinng should
no sh the large-scale activities of firms continue. Even then,
governments do try to educate business owners on sustainable practises through
guidelines instituted by national agencies. However, this form of education
remains ineffectual because firms can decide to do nothing with the information

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as they fundamentally do not have the incentive to switch to expensive but

sustainable production methods amidst rivalry between businesses. For example,
while more sustainable oil rigging methods have existed in the market for a long
time, the Royal Dutch Shell Company remains oblivious to their presence,
instead choosing low-cost production methods in Ogoniland in Nigeria. Their
aggressive exploitation of oil in Ogoniland was of serious environmental damage
to the air conditions, so much so that the natives protested against the local
government. Interestingly, it was only with concrete measures like lawsuits and
public backlash that Shell decided to step back and pledge to using more
sustainable practises in its production. Clearly, education is a soft measure that
does not legally bind firms to action, who remain devoted to the profit motive.
Hence, given the resistance of firms to education, and the fact that they are the
main perpetrators of climate change, education is hardly the best way to combat
climate change.

Lastly, education for the masses and even firms on climate change is ineffective
as governments often do not take the lead in spearheading the fight against
climate change. While education is effective in ensuring general awareness
among the population, the hard and concrete actions against climate change are
at the level of policy. It is fundamentally up to the politicians to regulate the
production activity of firms, to impose carbon taxes and further promote
individual habits. An environmentally conscious population amounts to nothing
when politicians’ inaction dominates. For instance, when President Obama tried
to roll out a set of climate change bills, the Republican-controlled senate blocked
it through filibustering, resulting in a diluted and ineffective set of environmental
regulations today. Furthermore, when politicians refuse to take the lead, it
reverses the work of education for the public will not see the importance of
tackling climate change. The anti-climate change rhetoric of President Trump has
allowed for anti-climate change arguments to gain traction in the USA. When
governments remain stubborn in prioritising other government agenda, the
educated individual cannot effect change alone. It is the collective action of
government, firms and individuals that constitutes an effective frontier against
climatee cchange.
hange. T Therefore,
here the inaction of governments renders the effects of
education
tiion ffutile
uttile inn ttackling
ack climate change given the key responsibility and role
that governments are conferred in leading the war against climate change.

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In conclusion, while education allows the populace to identify and define climate
change, education cannot do much beyond that. Education alone is not the
optimal answer to addressing the global problem especially when education fails
to effect behavioural change in a consumerist age. The indifference of firms and
the inaction of politicians prove that education does not result in a concerted
fight against climate change. Fundamentally, there is no best way to combat these
perennial issues, as such an effort requires soft measures like education, coupled
with hard measures like carbon taxes, legislation and international cooperation.

Comments:

There is a consistent focus on the question, keeping education firmly in your evaluation,
even as you discuss other methods. A good range of illustration is evident, although
there are some areas where depth could have been better.

Excellent language and control throughout, with evident economy of expression without
loss of effectiveness.

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16
2018 | Y6 | GP CT1 | Paper 1 Seraphine Loh | 18A13A

Discuss the claim that the digital age has made it more challenging
for political leaders to govern today.

The onset of the digital revolution has allowed most parts of the world to reap
the benefits of greater convenience, a wider range of entertainment and a
greater sense of interconnectedness with the world. Businesses and individuals
have both embraced the emergence of a digital age which have contributed to
the improvement of both material and non-material standard of living. However,
the digital age may not be equally welcomed in the political realm. Some have
argued that it has added to the complexity of politics, making it harder to govern
in today’s day and age because of the uncontrolled flow of information and the
power of anonymity. Optimists, on the other hand, think that the digital age still
contributes some benefits to politicians. I believe that the digital age has
ultimately benefitted the realm of politics, but has made it more challenging
because of its benefits.

The digital age has undoubtedly enabled greater accessibility. Politicians have
increased interaction with the general public and the public are more frequently
in contact with their leaders. This has made it easier for politicians to govern
because they are positioned to be better able to understand the needs and
concerns of the citizens. The creation of social media accounts of prominent
politicians on Facebook and Twitter has allowed citizens to directly contact them
by dropping them a direct message, or the simple act of sending a message to
their corporate e-mail can get the job done as well. Politicians are no longer
seen as distant authoritative figures, but leaders who are willing to listen to the
people and meet their needs. Online feedback platforms such as The Straits
Times forum have also allowed leaders greater awareness of issues on ground
level, instead off ggoverning
nstead o overn from their ‘ivory tower’. Policies can thus better suit
their needs.
needds VVice versa, citizens can also gain better awareness of political
ice ver
activities. The Instagram account of our President, Halimah Yacob, frequently
uploads posts to announce important ground events or meetings with world
leaders. In fact, the government can use technology as a tool for propaganda, as

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seen through the state control of the national newspaper The Straits Times,
making it easier to sell their politically unpopular but economically beneficial
policies, and thus making their job easier, as well as encouraging active
participation in politics.

Furthermore, the digital age has allowed, free, unregulated flow of information,
with the creation of the internet and convenient gadgets to access it. This has
the benefit of educating the general public as information is readily available at
the tap of a finger. It is also beneficial to countries with a democratic form of
government, where the majority decides the outcome. The majority thus needs
to be equipped with all the necessary information in order to decide what would
be the best outcome for their country. A common example would be elections.
Citizens are able to gain information about the goals of politicians and determine
if the latter would be a right fit for them, and gain a deeper understanding of
what they stand for. In contrast, having uninformed voters would result in
disastrous outcomes like Brexit, where British politicians are struggling to
execute the decision the public has arrived at while economists have criticised
it as detrimental to the economy. Thus, it has become much easier for political
leaders to govern as the public is more educated, especially on politically
contentious topics, and easing the implementation of politically unpopular
decisions, such as the Goods and service Tax (GST) hike.

However, there are two sides to a coin. The digital age has also made it more
challenging to govern as it has enabled the spread of ideas and ideologies that
may be counter to the official narrative or mandate. For example, lack of
traditional gatekeeping in digital platforms has allowed the liberalism in the US
to catch on in Singapore, with more people becoming aware of issues never
thought of in such a conservative society, like the LGBT community and same-
sex marriages. This has led to the organisation of Pink Dot, greater protests to
laws such as Section 377A, and calls to make applications of same-sex marriages
(and family building) possible. The digital age has also made it easier to rally and
unite people, allowing the formation of various communities that stand for a
common interest. Politicians now have to take into account a broader spectrum
of views,
ws, making
making tthe
he enacting of policies tougher. This has made it more
challenging
ngiing as llawmakers
awmake and politicians now have to debate on such issues and
possibly change the constitution. The digital age also threatens the kingdoms of
the Middle East which are largely conservative, or communist states like China

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and North Korea, which have enacted harsher clampdowns in light of the freer
flow and exchange of information characteristic of the digital age.

There is also the new, looming threat of terrorism. The spread of liberal ideas
may be beneficial in bringing about better change and freedom, but the spread
of extremist ideas will inevitably lead to radicalisation. The digital age has made
it harder to regulate the kind of context exposure the citizens are getting, and
too much regulation would be an infringement of personal privacy, which would
incense the citizens. It has also led to greater government surveillance of the
people ever since the 9/11 attacks, which led to the establishment of the US
Patriot Act. However, the Snowden revelations had caused outcry at how much
privacy is being invaded, seeing the amount of information the National Security
Agency was holding on to. The tensions between individual freedom and the
amount of power vested in the state is thus becoming harder to navigate, with
the compromise between privacy and security always proving to be a
contentious issue.

Lastly, the digital age has brought about a new problem – fake news. The difficulty
of verifying information from anonymous accounts, and the inability of some to
differentiate truths from untruths have contributed to the frustrations of political
leaders. The digital age has enabled the fabrication of information such as videos
and pictures, further fuelling the fire. The biases and prejudices tilts information
to their favour and withholds certain aspects of truth so voters are not as
informed as they would like to be. This can be seen in the recent US presidential
elections, with news outlets like the BBC and the CNN being accused of
favouring the democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and thus producing articles
and videos that are detrimental to the popularity over Trump. The concept of
anonymity in the digital age has also led to the difficulty of verifying first-hand
accounts, allowing fake news to very quickly spiral out of control. This has made
it difficult for politicians to govern because information online can be false or
one-dimensional, polarising communities. With the echo chamber effect on
social media, citizens are dangerously caught in their own filter bubble and
become increasingly unable to discern the news. This will eventually culminate
in social
iaal ttensions
ensions eeither
ith in various communities or targeted at the leaders in
question,
on upsetting
upseetting the political stability as citizens demand for action to be taken
although they do not demand the full picture. Being a government that is
ostensibly “for the people”, decisions become politically difficult to make, like

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the eradication of the Second Amendment in the wake of the Florida School
Shooting.

In conclusion, the digital age has brought about greater access to information,
which can lead to the betterment of society, and greater improved relations
between the leaders and the public, easing tensions through dialogue and better
assessment of ground tensions or concerns. The spread of liberal ideas may be
detrimental to certain forms of governments, including that of Singapore.
However, it has also enabled greater understanding of human rights, and has
allowed people to fight for their rights through the organisation of themselves
into communities or rallies. Although it has become more politically challenging
to govern, it is the duty of the leaders to navigate these grey areas well, with
sufficient foresight to make the right decisions such as changing constitutional
laws, as well as take into consideration all the various views of the people, since
it is their obligation to look after and maximise the welfare of the people. Indeed,
it is not easy to be a politician; it is a difficult and often thankless job. However,
change can be for the better, and leaders should embrace this.

Comments:

Fluently written, though a little wordy at times.

Relevant arguments and examples. Still, in paragraph 5 there is some confusion about
what exactly the focus is: restricting radical content or surveillance of citizens? The
student makes a link between the two that needs to be more clearly explained and
explored.

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17
2018 | Y6 | GP CT1 | Paper 1 Leong Mun Yee Elizabeth | 18S06G

To what extent has technology had a negative impact on the arts,

such as music or photography?

Technology is often criticised for “ruining everything”. Can this be said of the
arts as well? To sufficiently answer this question, one should look at the various
impacts that technology has had on the arts – on its quality, its accessibility, and
public interest in it. Technology such as the Internet or other inventions may be
seen as products of scientific innovation, while the arts may be seen as the
literary, visual or performing arts. To a small extent, technology has indeed
compromised the quality of art in some cases. Ultimately, however, technology
has had many positive impacts on the accessibility of the arts, interest in the arts
and the advancement of the arts. It can thus be said that technology has had an
overall positive impact on the arts, rather than a negative one.

As mentioned previously, technology can decrease the quality of art. Technology

has brought about the rise of social media platforms, on which many artists
publish their work, be they bands like Boyce Avenue or rising poets. Often, the
intentions of these artists is to get noticed as fast as possible by as many people
as possible, especially on platforms like YouTube on which views are monetised,
increasing the incentive of artists to get as many “likes”, views and subscribers
as they can. This can lower the quality of art in two ways: firstly, any art produced
will likely pander to the masses in order to attract attention. The less-than-
sincere intent of the artist may result in art not following one of its purposes,
which is to express an artist’s genuine intentions, thus compromising the quality
of art. Secondly, since there are no checks for quality on the Internet (unlike art
exhibitions or performances which have curators or other forms of quality
control), poorly-executed art may be proliferated. “Insta-poet” (“Instagram
poet”) Rupi
Rupi Kaur
Kaur iiss o
often accused of being “Instagram famous” despite her
poetryy not being
being up to standard. Indeed, many of her works are one or two lines
long, and are not particularly insightful or original. She even has faced accusations
of plagiarism before. Yet fans are drawn to her Instagram page and fork out
money for her poetry anthologies. In this way we can see how technology has

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compromised the quality of art by enabling social media, which tends to

incentivise artists not to create their best works. This decreases the quality of
art, constituting a negative impact on the arts.

However, the rise of social media due to technology does not only result in
negative impacts on the arts. It may well be true that poor quality art has become
more prevalent due to social media and the Internet, but the Internet also
enables good artists to practice their art, even for a living. This can work in
various ways. Firstly, the internet and social media allow artists to be “discovered”
online, by art galleries or record labels. This helps the artist in question to access
work opportunities and thus earn income from making their art, enabling them
to practice their art more often. For example, Tumblr artist Viktoria Ridzel
posted “fanart” of her favourite book series (Percy Jackson and the Olympians)
online. The author of the series, Rick Riordan, ended up employing her to do
official character illustrations. Secondly, other than being “discovered”, artists
can also utilise crowdfunding platforms to earn income from their art. Nebula
Awards-nominated Singaporean author JY Yang has a Patreon to raise money
for the writing process. Similarly, skilled a cappella group Pentatonix often does
fundraising online for their music videos. Ultimately, technology allows artists to
make money from their art more easily than before, especially in the case of
crowdfunding where “middlemen” are largely eliminated. This enables more
people to dedicate themselves to their art forms and promote their work, thus
constituting a positive impact on the arts.

We can also examine the impact of Internet technology from the point of view
of the audience and viewers of art. Before recent advances in technology, the
viewing of art was largely confined to physical arts spaces. Should a person have
no money to watch “The Nutcracker” at the Royal Ballet House, or lack the
time to travel to see a musician in action, then that person was simply out of
luck. He would not be able to access the arts; he may not even be aware of the
arts events around him too. Technology has greatly changed these circumstances.
Though of course some art remains behind paywalls, it is now possible to view
and experience the arts online. The Vaganova Ballet YouTube channel has many
videos and
and snippets
snippets of of their performances. Similarly, while libraries have almost
always exi
existed
istedd to allow
alllow people to view literature at no cost, the Internet now
eliminates the time needed to reach the books we want to find. The Gutenberg
Project is a free online archive of works with expired copyrights, such as Pride
and Prejudice or The Iliad. Other than increasing the accessibility of art, the

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Internet can also be said to increase interest in the arts. Yayoi Kusama’s art
exhibition in the National Gallery, Singapore, attracted much attention on
Instagram, causing people to flock to see her works. Thus, technology allows the
easy viewing of art and even ignites interest in the arts, having a positive impact
(increased accessibility) on the arts and the arts scene in general.

Other than the Internet, technology has also given the arts new or improved
tools and media by which art can be created. Cameras with better precision and
light settings can be used by photographers to increase the detail and intricacy
of their photographs, such as by capturing athletes in motion with less blur and
greater accuracy. In the visual arts, new colours made of various combinations
of pigments are constantly being made, such as “Vantablack”, thus increasing the
feats and techniques artists can use to colour their works. New media brought
about by technology include interactive, text-based video games, considered a
form of literary art by some major literary awards. One such game is “Fallen
London”, which has the player exploring a London that has collapsed underneath
the earth, and delves into various literary themes like love, choice and death.
Improvements in technology have also enabled mediums like animated film to
develop better animating techniques, increasing the quality of animation – just
compare the current Mickey Mouse to the original Steamboat Willie! In short,
technology has changed or improved the quality of the tools that artists use. This
has allowed an expansion in the possibilities of the arts and increases its potential
to create new, better works that resonate with audiences or communicate
artistic intent in a fresher, more effective way. This certainly constitutes a
positive impact on the arts.

In conclusion, technology has certainly caused a drop in the quality of the arts
to a slight extent. However, that is merely one unfortunate consequence of the
democratisation of the arts that technology has catalysed. Technology has
brought art to the public and has drawn the public to artists, breaking down the
elitist barriers that once plagued the fine arts. Artists today tap on technology
to increase the ways in which they practice art as well. All in all, technology has
had a mostly positive impact on the arts, not a negative one. We can look
forward d tto
rd o nnew
ew aadvances
dvan that will expand the variety of art forms we can view,
appreciate, practice.
ciiate orr even pr

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Comments:

Though the start was a little shaky with an opposing argument that provided little
balance in this essay, the other arguments were convincing with strong illustrations and
fluent language.

Still, in paragraph 2, there is some confusion between two criteria – the quality of the
art (your key focus) and the intention of the artist – and this affected the coherence of
the paragraph. And in paragraph 3, the concept of the Patreon needs to be explained,
for greater clarity of illustration.

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KS Bull 2018 | Issue 1

Editorial Team

Ms Edlyn Ang
Ms Sharon Chan
Ms Deborah Fernandez
Mrs Ruth Koh
Ms Michelle Kwok
Mr Caleb Liu
Mr Adrian Tan
Mr Patrick Wong
Ms Umarani

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